WASHINGTON (TNND) — Waste, fraud and abuse of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have been widespread, according to the Department of Agriculture.

SNAP, often referred to as food stamps, is meant to help those who need assistance put food on the table. 42 million Americans currently rely on the program. (TNND)

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, “When we found 186,000 dead people, social security numbers being used, 500,000 people receiving benefits, more than twice. We had a couple people receiving benefits in six states.

Back in February, Rollins asked all 50 states to turn over data to her agency to help root out fraud. Since that time, she said 29 Republican – led states have complied and 21 Democratic-led states have not, making this stunning announcement.

“We have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud to protect the American taxpayer.”

SNAP, often referred to as food stamps, is meant to help those who need assistance put food on the table. 42 million Americans currently rely on the program.

In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D, New York, responded, writing on X:

“Genuine question: Why is the Trump Administration so hellbent on people going hungry?”

For months, Democrats have slammed the cuts implemented as part of the Big Beautiful Bill, now law.

“We’re going backwards on hunger,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., during a September hearing on Capitol Hill.

“And we are going to have more families struggling to keep food in the fridge, more hungry kids, more red tape for working parents who are just trying to cook a healthy meal for their kids,” he added.

But the USDA is calling for major reforms, including requiring participants to reapply and highlighting states like California, New York and Minnesota.

Minnesota was recently found not to be using a state law to pause payments to those suspected of fraud.

And Maryland will have to spend $240 million more in state funds in 2027, due to its high overpayment and underpayment error rate, a penalty included in Trump’s Big Beautiful bill, according to Maryland Matters.

Under President Biden, SNAP saw its largest permanent increase, with some of the changes slammed by Republicans.

In an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said, “We saw $524 million of SNAP benefits being used at fast food restaurants in only nine states,” adding that those nine states are “blue states.”

“That’s a lot of money on nuggets and fries,” Ernst said.

More than a dozen states have sued the Trump administration, arguing the data request is illegal and is actually the White House attempting to access information on undocumented immigrants.

Rollins says the federal money will start being withheld next week.