Dem
47
GOP
53
At the cabinet meeting yesterday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said she would withhold SNAP benefits from people in those states that are refusing to give her the names and immigration status of people who receive SNAP benefits. Nothing in the law gives her or anyone else the authority to unilaterally cut off money to states because they refuse to comply with a directive that may or may not even be legal. But the law has never been a barrier in this administration. On the other hand, using people as pawns is a favorite trick.
So far, 29 "red" states have complied but 21 "blue" states have not. California, Minnesota, and New York are among the states that have refused. As usual, this is just grandstanding. A flyer from the USDA discusses fraud. It says there are 261,770 authorized retailers who accept EBT cards. The Dept. conducted 16,587 investigations. It fined 561 of them. That is 0.2% and does not scream massive retailer fraud. This doesn't speak to how much individual fraud there is, but there is no evidence that it is much bigger than retailer fraud. In any event, states are already required to make sure that everyone applying for an EBT card is legally entitled to it. There is no need (or legal authority) for Rollins to redo their efforts.
This does speak to a favorite technique used by the administration though: blackmail. Some group is threatened with the loss of funds to which they are legally entitled if they don't agree to some conditions that no law requires them to agree to. It's pretty shady, though it will work less and less well the closer we get to January 20, 2029. (V)