Cutting Federal Food Stamp Fraud Helps Taxpayers & Families in Need

There is an active coordinated campaign by many liberal advocacy groups to attack the Trump Administration’s efforts to bring integrity to the federal food stamp program which is formally known as the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”). 

On the heels of the massive and widely reported Minnesota Medicaid fraud scandal, President Trump issued Executive Order 14395 to tackle fraud and mismanagement occurring in multiple federal public assistance benefit programs.  In part, the Order created the “Task Force To Eliminate Fraud” (“Task Force”).  

Chaired by Vice President Vance and involving a least ten large federal agencies that manage benefit programs, the Task Force has already developed a long list of action and program integrity changes that need to be made in many federal benefit programs. It targets waste, fraud, abuse, and loopholes in federal food, medical, housing, cash assistance, and education programs.

The Task Force has been very active. It was mandated to prioritize federal benefit program eligibility verification procedures; put in place good controls that will prevent improper payments to program fraudsters; develop indicators of fraud, high-risk vulnerabilities to fraud, and study public benefit fraud trends. All fraud that is detected shall be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution.

There is transparency behind this effort which is proving that this isn’t just another federal government study group that might make change. The White House has launched “The Fraud Ledger,” a specific website that is tracking three metrics reported to the Task Force by federal agencies. 

The ledger tracks:

1. fraud uncovered
2. fraud stopped
3. fraud enforced

To date, the third largest area of fraud that has been uncovered occurs in the SNAP program. The Fraud Ledger reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) engaged in a “major enforcement surge” against SNAP retailers that has resulted in the disqualification of 735 retailers, sanctions against 3,739 additional retail outlets, and the elimination of 1,629 fraudulent point-of-sale devices. 

On the operational side, the USDA is proposing new SNAP Operating Standards for use of the electronic benefit cards on which SNAP dollars are loaded. The new rules require state agencies and retailers to transition from stripe-read cards to chip cards and tap-to-verify cards. The goal is to block fraudulent skimming and cloning of the cards.

Maryland’s Governor recently announced that use of the “chip-and-tap” EBT cards in the first three months of the program (from July through September of 2026) resulted in a dramatic73% reduction in customer reimbursements for stolen benefits. The program saved $2.2 million. 

Other program changes that the USDA is putting in place include requiring retailers to have more healthy food choices, rules to reduce retailer fraud, and increased undercover investigations.   Every dollar recovered from bad actors and every dollar that is not spent on fraudsters will directly benefit those who truly need the federal program’s help.

SNAP fraud is real. The scale is massive. Earlier this week, the Task Force, working with 13 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Utah Attorney General’s Office announced a nationwide series of enforcement actions targeting SNAP fraud. This “enforcement surge” resulted in actions brought against more than 40 defendants whose SNAP fraud schemes caused nearly $42 million of losses to SNAP. 

As the USDA Secretary, Brooke Rollins, stated “every instance of SNAP fraud has two victims: families in dire need and taxpayers.”  We fully support and commend the Fraud Task Force efforts to combat SNAP fraud.