Tag: welfare

Democrats Sue Over Cut to SNAP Benefits for Non-Citizens and Illegals

Nearly half of all households with noncitizen parents are accessing federal benefits, a category that includes both legal and illegal immigrants. The Trump administration is trying to end these programs, but Democrats are pushing back.

Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and Washington, D.C., have filed a federal lawsuit challenging new USDA guidance that they say unlawfully restricts legal immigrants’ access to SNAP benefits. The lawsuit, filed in Eugene, Oregon, argues that USDA misinterpreted President Trump’s July tax-and-spending law, which narrowed eligibility for some immigrants but still allows green-card holders to apply for food aid after a five-year waiting period.

State officials say the guidance issued on October 31 went beyond the statute by declaring lawful permanent residents who previously held refugee, asylum, or humanitarian parole status permanently ineligible for SNAP. They contend the law allows these groups to receive benefits once they adjust to permanent resident status and meet standard program requirements.

The attorneys general are asking the court to block the guidance, saying it reverses long-standing policy without a reasoned explanation and violates administrative law. They warn that states could face severe financial penalties for noncompliance, with some suggesting that their SNAP programs could be forced to shut down. They also note that USDA did not provide the required 120-day transition period, leaving states to overhaul eligibility systems immediately.

A White House spokesperson said the administration is committed to ensuring that illegal aliens do not receive benefits intended for citizens. SNAP, which serves about 42 million low-income Americans, has been at the center of several legal disputes in recent years, including battles following the lapse in benefits during the recent government shutdown. According to USDA data, refugees made up roughly 1 percent of SNAP recipients in 2023, while other non-citizens, including lawful permanent residents, accounted for about 3 percent.

However, those USDA claims severely undercut the actual number of noncitizens receiving SNAP and other benefits. USDA data from fiscal year 2022 shows that 1.465 million noncitizens received SNAP benefits, with an additional 2.2 million children living in households with noncitizens also participating in the program. These recipients include lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, individuals granted stays of deportation, and others. They collected a total of $4.2 billion in benefits. USDA notes that illegal aliens are not eligible for SNAP but may reside in households where other family members qualify.

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MINNESOTA MADNESS: Radical Democrat Judge Sarah West OVERTURNS Jury’s Guilty Verdict — Frees Somali Immigrant Who Stole $7.2 MILLION in Medicaid Fraud Scheme

Radical Democrat judge Sarah West, appointed by former Democrat Governor Mark Dayton, has tossed out a jury’s unanimous guilty verdict, setting free Abdifatah Yusuf, a Somali immigrant convicted of masterminding a massive Medicaid fraud ring that siphoned off $7.2 million from taxpayers.

A jury had found Yusuf guilty in August on six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle, following evidence that his home-healthcare company billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands dollars in “phantom” care, padding bills for services never delivered.

Prosecutors documented that many of those funds were funneled into luxury cars, high-end clothing, and other extravagant personal purchases.

But Judge West, rather than upholding the jury’s verdict, claimed the case hinged on circumstantial evidence and offered “other reasonable inferences” for the billing irregularities, arguing prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Yusuf was personally responsible for the fraud. She issued a judgment of acquittal.

Jurors, prosecutors, and state lawmakers were stunned. One juror told reporters he believed the evidence demonstrated “obvious guilt.” The state’s Attorney General has already filed an appeal, warning the decision undermines public trust.

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Michigan wasted millions on deceased Medicaid enrollees

Michigan made $39.9 million in Medicaid payments to deceased enrollees over a two-year period a decade ago, with a total of $249 million spent across 14 states.

This is according to a new report titled the “Welfare Walking Dead” from the non-profit the Foundation for Government Accountability, which looked at federal audit data from the Office of Inspector General, among other research.

In an exclusive interview with The Center Square, Jonathan Bain said that every taxpayer should be concerned with these findings. Bain is a senior research fellow at the FGA and authored the report.

“The average citizen should care about these findings because it’s yet another example of government waste that’s rooted in inefficiency and lack of care and precision,” Bain explained. “Every dollar that is lost to waste, fraud, or abuse is a dollar that cannot be spent to benefit the truly needy—folks like pregnant women, low-income kids, or seniors.”

Of the 14 states the audit looked at, the report found that Michigan reported one of the highest amounts of Medicaid payments to the deceased. States that surpassed it included California at $70.9 million and Ohio at $51.3 million.

Other states, including ones with much higher populations than Michigan, reported much lower Medicaid payments to the deceased. That included Florida at $26.2 million and Illinois at $4.6 million.

Bain said there is action that states can take to ensure fraud is not happening.

“States have the tools to identify these deceased enrollees,” he said. “The issue is that they either aren’t doing the proper cross checks to discover them, or their Medicaid Management Information Systems aren’t being updated to reflect that a deceased enrollee has been flagged.”

The report found that most of the states audited did not routinely enter death information into their Medicaid Management Information Systems.

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SNAP Fraud: A $50,000 EBT Card, One Person Getting Benefits from 6 Different States – This Is What Taxpayers Are Funding

If there’s any good that’s come from the government shutdown, it’s exposing all the fraud being committed to exploit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

To be sure, there are millions of needy Americans who were hurting from being deprived of SNAP as they tried to support children and keep their families from going hungry. This is not about them. This is about the other people — the individuals who dip into this program unjustly at the expense of the taxpayer.

Just the News reported that Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Steven Vaden has indicated his agency is engaging in data collection relating to SNAP across several states to see where funds for the program are going.

So far, what he’s uncovered is not promising.

Vaden cited an instance of one individual getting SNAP in six separate states.

Another person had over $50,000 loaded onto their electronic benefits card.

EBT cards work like credit cards for anyone getting government assistance, with funds rolling over to the following month.

Clearly something is amiss.

As Vaden put it, “The taxpayers have a right to know what is being done with their money and that, when we have appropriations, we are spending more than nine billion a month.”

On the case of a $50,000 card, Vaden clarified, “[Taxpayers] especially have a right to rest assured that only those who truly need are benefitting from the program, because every dollar you give to someone who has a balance of more than $15,000 on their EBT card cannot go to someone who is truly in need.”

SNAP fraud gets worse when considering recent comments by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on “The Ingraham Angle.”

Over 500,000 people were found to have been taking SNAP benefits twice, with 5,000 dead people receiving it.

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Massachusetts out-of-state SNAP spending soars, including in Hawaii

With the federal government reopened, Massachusetts SNAP benefits continue to reach far and wide, with out-of-state expenditures on the rise as the feds consider revamping the program to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed SNAP benefits on Newsmax TV Thursday, telling the network that SNAP data from blue states is “going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

According to data from the state Department of Transitional Assistance, there have been notable increases in out of state spending through the SNAP program in eight states. From FY24 to FY25, these expenditures have jumped by 48.7% in Illinois, 47.1% in New Jersey, 25.9% in Arkansas, 21.8% in Minnesota, 20.8% in California, 10.9% in Washington, and 1.9% in New York. There was even a 16.7% increase in SNAP spending in Hawaii by Massachusetts residents.

This as other states, notably four of the other five states in New England, are getting the cold shoulder from Bay State SNAP purchases. Massachusetts EBT spending in Alaska was down 55% in FY25 and Florida experienced a 12.5% drop. Out-of-state EBT spending in Connecticut dropped 6.5% with a 5.9% slump in New Hampshire. Rhode Island and Maine saw decreases of 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively.

Acting DTA Commissioner Michael Cole tells the Herald that the out-of-state expenditures are negligible compared to what Massachusetts SNAP recipients spend at home and regionally.

“The SNAP program is a lifeline for more than one million Massachusetts residents, including veterans, seniors, children and people with disabilities. It brings in $2.7 billion annually that is spent at over 5,500 retailers and small businesses in Massachusetts,” Cole said.

He also emphasized the importance of allowing online purchases: “While 91% of all EBT transactions are made within Massachusetts and nearby states, it is important that recipients also have the ability to purchase food online. For example, some seniors are home bound due to their health or disabilities and are unable to physically visit a grocery store. All of these policies are set by the federal government.”

The DTA also says many Massachusetts SNAP recipients could be visiting or taking care of sick relatives and loved ones in other states, requiring them to spend money on food while away.

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Rollins: ‘Next Step’ Is to Make ‘Everyone Reapply’ for SNAP to Ensure Integrity

On Thursday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins discussed data on food stamps and said that data from blue states is “going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

Rollins stated, “29 states, mostly the red states, responded with their data sets, February, March, April. … But here’s the most unbelievable news I have really, just over the last few days: That 5,000 dead people, that was just one month, the number is closer to 186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check. Now, that is what we’re really going to start clamping down on. Half a million are getting two. But here’s the really stunning thing: This is just data from those 29 mostly red states. Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data, what we’re going to find?”

She continued, “It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it. And that’s the next step here.”

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Here Are All the States That Have Paid Full SNAP Benefits for November

More than a dozen states have conveyed the full amount of food stamps for November, with some issuing them after President Donald Trump signed a legislative package that ended the government shutdown.

Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin residents have received the full amount of food stamps they were due to receive for November, officials said.

The government reopened this week after Trump signed the funding bill on Nov. 12.

The package includes full funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with the help of states. SNAP involves lower-income people receiving money for groceries on electronic cards.

Many of the states paid full November benefits before Trump signed the package, after receiving a memorandum from the USDA that stated it would soon complete the actions necessary to issue full benefits for the month.

The USDA reversed course in another directive, but a federal judge blocked that memo.

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Full SNAP Benefits to Be Restored by Monday, Agriculture Secretary Says

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits would be restored by Monday, Nov. 17. This came the day after the Nov. 12 passage of a funding legislation to reopen the federal government.

Rollins made her comments during a Nov. 13 interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown, saying that the end of the government shutdown prompted quick action by her agency. 

“We, immediately last night, began moving out, making sure that the program continues unabated, starting once the government reopened, and hopefully by the end of this week, most will receive it at the very latest on Monday,” Rollins said.

“But keep in mind, the SNAP program is funded by the federal government, but it is the 50 states and 50 different infrastructures that move that money out, which is what made it so complicated, the patchwork.”

Some states have already assured residents that the assistance will again be available to them. 

West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey announced on Nov. 13 that SNAP has been restored, and every cardholder should be “fully funded and able to purchase food with their EBT cards.”

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What to Know About Food Stamps as Congress Poised to End Shutdown

Americans who are in the federal food stamp program and have not received full benefits are poised to see the money soon, under a package the House of Representatives is due to vote on later Nov. 12.

Many of the 42 million Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have received partial or no benefits for November as the federal government has only paid about half of the approximately $8.5 billion needed to fund the program for the month.

Courts ordered the government to pay in full for November, but the Supreme Court blocked those rulings on Tuesday.

Here’s what to know about SNAP and the upcoming vote.

Some States Have Paid Full Benefits

Usually, the money SNAP beneficiaries receive on electronic EBT cards comes in full from the federal government, which conveys them through states.

Because the government has only paid $4.6 billion so far, a number of states have only been distributing partial benefits, with some SNAP participants not having received any money yet.

The plan in place now “would delay November benefits by weeks or months for recipients in multiple states and would create substantial risks of error,” states said in a Nov. 11 filing to the Supreme Court.

Others have paid full benefits to some people. Hawaii, for example, recently paid full benefits to about half of the 161,400 residents who receive food stamps, officials said in a court filing.

The state took this step following a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) memorandum sent on Nov. 7 that said the federal government would make funds available for full SNAP benefits for November to comply with a court order, according to the filing.

Still others, including Minnesota and Oregon, paid all beneficiaries the full amount they were due to receive after reading the memo.

“The money is now on the EBT cards of SNAP recipients, and the recipients have begun to spend it,” Jessica Amaya Hoffman, deputy director of the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Self-Sufficiency Programs, said in a declaration.

Later on Nov. 7, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government did not immediately have to pay full benefits for November, prompting the USDA to direct states to “undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November.” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who is overseeing one of the cases brought over food stamp funding, said on Monday that she was blocking the USDA from implementing the new memo. She has not yet issued a written order detailing her decision.

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Supreme Court Lets Government Continue to Withhold Funding From SNAP

The Trump administration may, for the time being, continue not to fully fund the food stamp program until Congress appropriates new funds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled late on Nov. 11.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the food stamp program, provides financial assistance for food purchases to about 42 million people.

The court extended until 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 13 an administrative stay it granted on Nov. 7 that blocked lower court decisions that ordered the Trump administration to redirect about $4 billion in tariff revenue to SNAP on top of $4.6 billion it already used from a contingency fund. An administrative stay gives members of a court more time to consider an urgent matter.

The new unsigned order in Rollins v. Rhode Island Council of Churches did not provide reasons for the decision.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated she would have denied the extension and the federal government’s emergency application. She did not explain her dissent.

Jackson on Nov. 7 had placed a temporary hold on the adverse lower court orders until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued a written explanation outlining why it denied the administration’s appeal of those rulings. That explanation was released on Nov. 10, prompting the administration to request that Jackson extend her stay.

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