Tag: welfare

Judge Rejects Anti-Marijuana Groups’ Motion To Block CBD And THC Medicare Coverage Plan, Setting Hearing For 4/20

A federal judge has denied a request from a coalition of anti-marijuana organizations that sought to immediately block the Trump administration’s initiative to cover hemp-derived CBD and THC products through Medicare from launching on Wednesday.

The groups’ overall lawsuit challenging the policy is still under consideration, however, with a hearing on their separate motion for a preliminary injunction scheduled for April 20, which coincidentally is known as the unofficial cannabis cultural holiday 4/20.

Judge Trevor N. McFadden on Tuesday rejected the request from Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and nine other drug prevention groups to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the federal cannabis initiative, which is being facilitated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from taking effect.

McFadden, in his one-page order, quoted case law holding that a temporary restraining order is an “extraordinary and drastic remedy” that can only be granted if a party makes a “clear showing that four factors, taken together, warrant relief: likely success on the merits, likely irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, a balance of the equities in its favor, and accord with the public interest.”

“Having considered the arguments in Plaintiffs’ motion and at a motions hearing, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have not met this high standard,” the judge wrote. “The motion for a temporary restraining order is thus denied. The Court will consider Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and motion to stay upon the completion of briefing.”

Defendants in the lawsuit—CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—now have until April 9 to file briefs responding to the prohibitionist groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction. The plaintiffs then have a reply brief due on April 13, a week ahead of the 4/20 hearing on the matter.

The lawsuit comes as CMS is set to start covering CBD and THC products under select federal health insurance programs as a Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive (BEI) beginning on Wednesday.

Under the BEI, patients enrolled in specific federal health insurance programs could have up to $500 worth of hemp-derived products covered each year. The CBD-focused plan will also allow a certain amount of THC in products, but the agency said that the rules are subject to change if federal hemp policy changes, as is currently expected under a law set to take effect later this year.

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New Restrictions On SNAP Purchases To Take Effect In More States In April

Food stamp recipients in Florida, Texas, and West Virginia will face restrictions on buying certain kinds of less nutritious items such as soda and candy, some starting in April.

West Virginia’s restrictions became effective on Jan. 1, but retailers have until April 1 to be fully compliant.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved Colorado’s restrictions waiver, but the state has delayed implementation of restrictions on certain items for food stamp recipients until after April 30 and stated that it would have a final vote on April 3 on the program.

The Trump administration is clamping down on soda and candy being charged to food stamps, as 22 states now have been approved to restrict certain purchases under the program. The restrictions still require state approval before taking effect.

Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, and Wyoming were the latest states to receive USDA approval for food and beverage restrictions.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, had 40.7 million people participating nationwide at a monthly cost of $7.97 billion as of November 2025.

“The Trump Administration is leading bold reform to strengthen integrity and restore nutritional value within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” the USDA stated on its website. “USDA is empowering states with greater flexibility to manage their programs by approving SNAP Food Restriction Waivers that restrict the purchase of non-nutritious items like soda and candy. These waivers are a key step in ensuring that taxpayer dollars provide nutritious options that improve health outcomes within SNAP.”

For example, starting on April 1, Texas residents will not be able to buy candy or sweetened drinks on their SNAP-provided Lone Star Cards. Those restrictions will ban such purchases as candy bars, gum, and taffy, as well as nuts, raisins, or fruits that have been “candied, crystallized, glazed or coated with chocolate, yogurt or caramel.”

Texas also will ban sweetened non-alcoholic beverages made with water that contain 5 or more grams of sugar or artificial sweetener, according to Texas Health and Human Services.

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Anti-Marijuana Groups File Lawsuit To Block Trump Administration’s Hemp CBD And THC Medicare Coverage Plan

A coalition of anti-marijuana organizations is suing the Trump administration over a novel initiative set to launch this week to widen the availability of CBD and THC for certain patients by covering hemp-derived products under select federal health insurance programs.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and nine other drug prevention groups on Monday filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the legality of the cannabis program—which is being facilitated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—and seeking a temporary restraining order to immediately halt the process.

The filing names CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as defendants in the lawsuit. The lawsuit comes as CMS is set to start covering CBD and THC products as a Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive (BEI) beginning on Wednesday.

Under the BEI, patients enrolled in specific federal health insurance programs could have up to $500 worth of hemp-derived products covered each year. The CBD-focused plan will also allow a certain amount of THC in products, but the agency said earlier this month the rules are subject to change if federal hemp policy changes, as is currently expected under a law set to take effect later this year.

SAM and the other organizations—including the Cannabis Impact Prevention Coalition, Drug Free American Foundation and Save Our Society From Drugs—made several arguments in support of legal intervention to prevent the cannabidiol BEI from moving forward. Much of the complaint focuses on alleged violations of administrative rules to provide the treatment, which they point out has not received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

CMS didn’t publish a notice of proposed rulemaking for the cannabis BEI that would have afforded the public with a comment period to weigh in, and the agency’s initiative runs counter to a separate final rule it issued last year that “declared cannabis products ineligible for supplemental Medicare coverage for chronically ill patients,” the prohibitionist plaintiffs said.

Beyond those alleged violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the groups noted that CMS described a BEI for CBD containing a maximum THC concentration that exceeds what would constitute federally legal hemp under a policy that’s set to be implemented in November.

The filing says the program would additionally violate the Social Security Act (SSA), which “does not allow CMS to sanction the possession and use of illegal and dangerous Schedule I substances by Medicare patients without clear congressional authorization.”

“CMS’s action represents an unprecedented and unlawful assertion of binding decision-making authority that will profoundly affect the health of elderly Americans,” SAM and the other organizations said in their complaint. “CMS took this action without the guardrails imposed by the administrative process, without any reasoned explanation, in conflict with the agency’s own recent APA-compliant determination, and without statutory authority.”

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Migrant Households Are Claiming £1 Billion a MONTH in UK Welfare Benefits.

Foreign nationals are claiming close to £1 billion (~$1.3 billion) in welfare payments from the British government each month, according to the latest Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures. The data, released in response to Freedom of Information requests from Conservative (Tory) Member of Parliament (MP) Neil O’Brien, shows that households containing at least one foreign national received £941 million in Universal Credit payments this month.

Universal Credit, which supports low-income working-age families, is available to migrants who hold Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)—roughly equivalent to permanent residency in the U.S.—or refugee status. Over the last four years, the total value of claims from households with a migrant has more than doubled, climbing from £461 million in March 2019 to almost £1 billion now. The figure rose by nearly 30 per cent in the past 12 months alone.

Neil O’Brien criticized the trend, saying: “The growth of benefit spending and the rate of migration are both much too fast, and the Government is doing far too little to change either trend. Migrants know that if they can make it to the UK, they will be allowed to stay. As long as that is true, we’ll see more and more coming. Our soft-touch welfare state makes this worse.”

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has called for the complete abolition of Indefinite Leave to Remain as a way to reduce the financial strain of large-scale migration. Reform wants to restrict welfare benefits to British citizens only and replace Indefinite Leave to Remain with a five-year work visa system modelled on the American approach to long-term legal immigration.

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Vance Says Tim Walz Could be Prosecuted in Fraud Probe, Signals California Voter Fraud Will Also be Investigated

Vice President JD Vance discussed his plans with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in an interview with Benny Johnson on Friday, where he said that Tim Walz and other Democratic officials could “absolutely” be prosecuted for defrauding taxpayers. 

Chaired by Vice President JD Vance, with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson as Vice Chairman, “the Task Force will coordinate measures to improve eligibility verification, implement pre-payment controls, detect high-risk fraud trends, and disrupt and dismantle fraud networks and the mechanisms through which fraud is committed,” according to the order.

Earlier in the interview, Vance stated that Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)  “definitely committed immigration fraud, against the United States of America” and that the task force is looking into what can be done about it, The Gateway Pundit reported. ‘We’re trying to look at what the remedies are. That’s the thing we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud? How do you investigate her? How do you go after her?” he added, suggesting that she may also be involved in the mass welfare fraud in the Somali community.

When asked about failed Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, Vance trolled Walz’s horrendous debate performance against him, then said, “We’re going to have to maybe kick him again a little bit.”

“We’re absolutely going to prosecute it,” he said if the investigation shows that Walz engaged in criminal activity.

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Tim Walz Vows to ‘Never Leave the Side’ of Somali Minnesotans

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) vowed that his administration would “never leave the side” of Somalians in Minnesota, adding that their “great-grandchildren” would still be there even when President Donald Trump is gone.

Walz made the comments during a “No Kings” protest on Saturday in Minneapolis, according to Mediaite. During his speech, Walz expressed that the Somali community in the state was “seen, heard, valued, and loved.”

“I will add a special, a special thank you, and a special acknowledgement that we will never leave the side of our Somali Minnesotans,” Walz told the crowd. “Here’s our pledge to you, our Somali Minnesotans: your great-grandchildren will still be here when that orange clown is in the dustbin of history.”

Walz’s comments come as there have been multiple reports that people in the Somali community in the state have committed fraud with schemes in which they have “bilked American taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars,” Breitbart News’s John Nolte noted:

Walz has been under intense pressure as multiple Somali fraud scandals have blossomed throughout a state that has been run exclusively by Democrats for decades, with Walz at the top of the political caste system as governor for seven years.

According to court records and alternative media reports, Somali fraudsters have bilked American taxpayers out of tens of billions of dollars through various scams that include pretty much everything subsidized by federal taxpayers: food programs, healthcare centers, daycare centers, and those now infamous “learing” centers…

Citizen journalist Nick Shirley released a video in December in which he was seen visiting several daycare centers in the state that were reported to be receiving millions of dollars in federal aid. While visiting the various daycare centers, there appeared to be no signs of children.

President Trump has promised “to cut off funds to the Somali-related fraud and corruption” in states such as California and Illinois, as well as Minnesota. Trump has also claimed that Somali immigrants in the state have stolen “$19 billion at least.”

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Fraud Ring Used Fake Doctors’ Orders in $61.5M Medicare Scheme

A Texas man was sentenced Wednesday to over 12 years in prison and two years of supervised release for organizing and leading a $61.5 million health care fraud and wire fraud conspiracy in which thousands of Medicare beneficiaries who were the victims of deceptive telemarketing were sent thousands of orthotic braces, foot baths, and genetic tests they did not need.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Robert “Bobby” Leon Smith III, 50, of Archer City, Texas, owned and operated seven durable medical equipment supply companies based in Florida, Texas, and Maryland through which he submitted millions of dollars in false claims to Medicare for orthotic braces and foot baths that beneficiaries did not need.

Smith also owned a marketing company based in Texas that he used to conduct deceptive telemarketing campaigns that targeted Medicare beneficiaries for medical services they did not need. Working with an offshore call center located in the Philippines, Smith and his co-conspirators peddled medically unnecessary orthotic braces, foot baths, and genetic tests to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide. In audio recordings presented at trial, Smith was heard pressuring beneficiaries to accept these products even after the beneficiaries protested that they did not need or want them.

Smith obtained doctors’ orders for these products by allegedly paying kickbacks and bribes to illegitimate telemedicine companies. He then sold these doctors’ orders to other medical suppliers that he knew used them to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. 

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Audits Spotlight Unusual Trends In Medicaid Spending For Autism Care

One in 31 U.S. children has an autism diagnosis. Among Minnesota’s Somali community, that number jumps to one in 12.

That discrepancy made headlines last fall when the Department of Justice charged a Somali woman with netting millions in fraudulent autism services.

Now, state and federal investigators are putting autism spending in the spotlight.

The September 2025 federal indictment alleged that a therapy center—run by 28-year-old Asha Farhan Hassan—recruited Somali children for an autism services program that was then reimbursed by Medicaid.

The White House pointed to the indictment on March 16 in an executive order announcing the creation of a federal task force to eliminate fraud.

“The staggering fraud and waste in Minnesota alone is a case in point,”  the order reads.

“There is also strong reason to believe that similar problems exist in other States, including California, Illinois, New York, Maine, and Colorado.”

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SNAP Fraud Cleanup in Progress: 3.3 Million Less Dependents on Taxpayers’ Dime

New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dropped to approximately 39.5 million people in December 2025, marking the first time enrollment has fallen below 40 million since September 2024.

Maria Bartiromo highlighted the figures during a televised interview, stating, “The US, Department of Agriculture tracking the latest on SNAP enrollment numbers, December data shows roughly 39 and a half million participants.”

She noted the significance of the decline, adding, “First time it’s been under 40 million since September of 24.”

Bartiromo also raised questions about a reported case involving a wealthy individual qualifying for benefits. “In Minnesota, one millionaire says he discovered a loophole which allowed him to qualify for food stamps,” she said.

Describing the situation further, she said, “Millionaire, he described the process to Fox News digital as fraud by design.”

Bartiromo explained how eligibility rules played a role, stating, “He qualified for the program based on income, not assets, and with low retirement income, he was accepted.”

She added that the individual later gave away the benefits, saying, “He ended up donating all of the money and the benefits to charity.”

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Analysis: Nearly Half of Immigrant Households in U.S. Are on Welfare

Nearly half of households headed by immigrants, those legally and illegally living in the United States, are on one or more forms of welfare, a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of Census Bureau data reveals.

The CIS analysis looked at the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement to learn which countries have the most immigrant welfare-users in the U.S.

Overall, about 47 percent of households headed by immigrants are on one or more forms of welfare. When the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit is included as welfare, that percentage rises to 54 percent.

Meanwhile, just 28 percent of households headed by native-born Americans are on welfare, and just 31 percent are on welfare that includes both tax credits.

Countries with the highest welfare-users in the U.S. include Afghanistan, 87 percent, the Dominican Republic, 78 percent, Guatemala, 77 percent, Honduras, 75 percent, and Mexico, 67 percent.

Meanwhile, immigrant households from Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India have the lowest welfare usage among the nation’s immigrant population.

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