Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blamed Democrats for the historic lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits set to occur Saturday, but she also called the program “extremely corrupt" due to what she alleged was rampant fraud.
At a press conference at the Capitol Friday morning with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Rollins said it was a "silver lining" that the partisan struggle over the government shutdown and SNAP would focus attention on the program.
She said Democrats have been “lying” about USDA’s ability to use a contingency fund estimated to contain between $5 billion and $6 billion, which would partially cover benefits for November.
Later Friday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered USDA to release SNAP benefits using the contingency fund after finding that the plaintiff cities and nonprofit groups had demonstrated "irreparable harm," according to news reports. A second judge, in Massachusetts, gave USDA until Monday to consider providing “at least reduced” payments for November.
Johnson and Rollins appeared at the press conference to push back against claims that USDA can tap the contingency fund during the government shutdown. She said it needs to be reserved for disaster victims.
In its own shutdown plan posted Sept. 30, USDA said, “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State [sic] can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown.”
The plan was removed from USDA’s website last week. USDA told states Oct. 10 that “if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.” On Oct. 24, USDA issued a statement saying the contingency fund cannot legally be used to cover SNAP.
“The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists,” the statement said.
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“That's the contingency fund that we would use to send more money into the vulnerable communities that are harmed by a specific event, like a hurricane,” she said, adding, “It is a contingency fund that can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved. And listen, even if it could flow, it doesn't even cover half of the month of November,” which Rollins estimated at $9.2 billion.
On a webinar Thursday discussing the loss of SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans tomorrow, Georgetown professor David Super estimated the costs for SNAP in November at $8.7 billion.
House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig, D-Minn., fired back at Rollins in a statement: “Secretary Rollins said one honest thing today: The government is failing the American people. Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. The Trump administration has the legal authority and funds necessary to get November SNAP benefits out the door. They are illegally withholding food from 42 million Americans, and it is shameful.”
Johnson, for his part, called the Democrats “shameless” and said Democratic senators had voted against clean Continuing Resolutions 14 times. He also called the lawsuits “frivolous” and predicted they would fail.
Rollins was highly critical of SNAP,
“I guess the silver lining in all of this is that we're having a national conversation on our SNAP program, that this has sort of shined a light on a program that, especially under the last administration, has just become so bloated, so broken, so dysfunctional, so corrupt, that it is astonishing when you dig in,” she said.
She said the department is looking closely at fraud and abuse in the program.
“Just in the last six months, we've had … dozens of arrests, people going to jail, fraudulent activity. … One guy’s registered for snap in six different states. I mean, it's one thing after another. So we are taking that extremely, extremely seriously and we'll continue to do so.”
She criticized Democratic-led states for failing to comply with an administration demand that they share the personal data of SNAP recipients.
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