Tag: welfare

SNAP Recipients Will Receive More Food Stamps Than Initially Estimated: Filings

Food stamp recipients will receive up to 65 percent of their normal benefits in November, Trump administration officials said in court filings on Nov. 5.

That’s an increase from up to 50 percent that was outlined in previous filings, as well as a memorandum sent to states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in the Nov. 4 memorandum that it was reducing the maximum benefit households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can receive to 50 percent of the current maximum allotment.

“Since that time, USDA performed further analysis and determined that the maximum allotments need only be reduced by 35%, instead of 50%, to deplete the SNAP contingency fund, and has issued a revised memorandum and allotment tables to State agencies,” Patrick Penn, a USDA deputy undersecretary, told the federal court in Rhode Island.

The revised memo, distributed on Nov. 5, said that maximum benefits will be 65 percent of the typical maximum benefits.

Trump administration lawyers in a separate filing described what happened as an error and said it worked to issue accurate information as soon as the error was discovered.

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Trump To Democrats: SNAP Returns Only After Gov’t Reopens; USDA Warns Grocers On Illegal Food Stamp Discounts

The Trump administration said Monday it plans to partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) after judges ruled in November that contingency funds must be used to pay for the benefits.

One major issue with SNAP has been the widespread fraud that erupted under the Biden-Harris regime. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins revealed Sunday that the USDA has purged 700,000 fraudulent recipients so far this year.

On Tuesday morning, President Trump wrote on X that SNAP benefits “increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly “handed” to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!” 

Trump made it clear to radical leftist lawmakers that keeping the government closed – now on its 35th day, a record – by refusing to vote on a clean resolution would mean the SNAP program would only resume once the government reopens.

“It will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” the president emphasized. 

Benny Johnson told Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty several days ago that the Trump administration should force everyone who wants to get back onto SNAP to “reapply with American citizenship.” 

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White House to Launch Website Exposing Criminal Illegal Aliens Who Have Received Medicaid

The White House will launch a website on Monday night exposing criminal illegal aliens, including murderers, rapists, and burglars, who have received taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, Breitbart News has learned.

The website features mugshots and photos of dozens of illegal aliens convicted of brutal crimes, undercutting Democrat claims that illegal aliens have not received healthcare benefits.

The top of the page chronicles the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal aliens convicted of crimes who have received Medicaid benefits, as well as Democrats’ efforts to restore Medicaid benefits to illegal aliens and noncitizens:

The Trump administration has intensified enforcement against criminal illegal aliens receiving taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, arresting hundreds of unauthorized individuals since taking office, including those with serious criminal records who exploited taxpayer-funded Medicaid illegally or through loopholes. This crackdown, driven by executive orders prioritizing public safety and fiscal responsibility, has led to the swift deportation of many individuals convicted of heinous acts, ensuring that previous resources meant for American citizens are no longer diverted to subsidize violent criminals.

Compounding the crisis, Democrats have refused to pass a clean budget bill to end the shutdown unless Republicans concede to their demands for $1.5 trillion in new spending, including restorations to Medicaid expansions that would effectively extend coverage to over 1 million illegal aliens, funneling an additional $200 billion to such programs over the next decade at the expense of U.S. families.

At least five of the two dozen individuals listed on a glimpse of the page reviewed by Breitbart News were arrested for either murder or manslaughter.

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Trump administration says SNAP will be partially funded after judges’ rulings

President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP after a pair of judges’ rulings required it to keep the food aid program running.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs about $8 billion per month nationally.

It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly beneficiaries will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the nation’s largest food program, said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid out due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.

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Government Shutdown Could Delay Home Heating Aid for Millions of Low-Income Families

A critical federal home heating assistance program that provides billions in relief to low-income families every year is at risk with the government shutdown now in its fifth week.

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides $4.1 billion in funds to 5.9 million households to help heat and cool their homes, for energy crises and home weatherization, and minor energy-related repairs. Now that temperatures are dropping across the country, some states are cautioning that the funds for the program are being delayed by the shutdown.

This comes as low-income Americans are also grappling with the sudden postponement of benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamp program, which provides  food to 41 million Americans every year.

SNAP funds might start rolling out as soon as Nov. 5 after judges last week ordered the Trump administration to tap into emergency contingency funds the government said was illegal to access for this purpose.

The administration had said it couldn’t use the emergency funds for food stamp benefits during a shutdown after removing a Sept. 30 memo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website that stated the opposite, that “these multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

While the Trump administration said on Sunday it will not appeal the ruling on SNAP, that doesn’t address the funding shortfall for LIHEAP.

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‘New Sheriff in Town’: USDA Secretary Rollins To Reform SNAP Program

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that her agency has found massive fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It must be reformed, she added. 

When President Donald Trump’s administration asked states for food stamp data to eradicate fraud, waste, and abuse, many states sued, Townhall reported. 

Trump’s Executive Order 14243, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos,” aims to eradicate fraud, waste, and abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which feeds about 41 million people. 

A May 6 USDA directive requires states to provide the names and Social Security Numbers of food stamp beneficiaries. 

Also in May, the federal government shuttered a $66 million SNAP scheme in New York, in which a federal employee helped loot public benefits meant for hungry, vulnerable people. 

Rollins said that the program gives food benefits to illegal aliens, and others abuse the system meant to feed hungry, low-income families. 

“The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens. They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census,” Rollins said. “There’s a new sheriff in town. @POTUS will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry.”

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‘Massive Fraud’ Uncovered in Food Stamp Program, Says Agriculture Secretary as Benefits Lapse

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Sunday said that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, is “a broken and corrupt program,” after benefits lapsed over the weekend due to the government shutdown.

In an interview with Fox News, Rollins said that while the Trump administration is moving to get the program restarted, 21 states refused to hand over data to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on whether illegal immigrants were receiving these benefits. Thousands of cases of illegal benefit use were also found, dozens were arrested for SNAP fraud, and thousands of dead people were still receiving benefits, she said.

“And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday.

After the second Trump administration took over, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched an investigation into SNAP fraud and abuse, said Rollins. She said her department asked all 50 states to send in data to the government for a review but 21 states did not.

Rollins suggested that if certain SNAP benefits are cut off, illegal immigrants will self-deport and added that it would change the outcome of the Census, causing House districts to be redrawn.

The Department of Agriculture planned to withhold payments to the food program starting Saturday until two federal judges ordered the administration to make the payments. It was unclear when the debit cards that beneficiaries use would be reloaded after the ruling.

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Illegal Aliens Milk SNAP For Taxpayer-Funded Free Food

Many illegal aliens who are not eligible for SNAP benefits were nonetheless saved from scrambling for food Friday when a judge forced funding for the program to continue in November.

Both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) have been under threat as the budget impasse in Congress continues. SNAP was slated for suspension on Nov. 1 when the federal SNAP funding mechanism ran out. An appropriation bill must be passed to fund it.

But Judge Indira Talwani has ordered the USDA to use contingency funds to pay for SNAP at least partially, and to find more funds to fully fund it. “And while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, [the USDA] also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds,” Indira wrote Friday.

A better solution would be to end the government shutdown and pass an appropriation bill to fund the government (a solution Democrats are loath to adopt). But while government workers miss paychecks and federal services are shut down, taxpayers are still feeding many illegal aliens.

Data from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that many households led by illegal aliens who are not personally eligible for SNAP would be hit if a SNAP free food freeze is ever allowed to happen. In many cases they have been receiving SNAP for their children, born in the U.S. after the mother illegally entered or overstayed in the U.S.

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These Are The States Where Most Americans Need Housing Assistance

Housing costs keep climbing faster than wages in many parts of the U.S., putting extra pressure on low-income renters.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, maps all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico by how many low-income renters receive federal housing assistance relative to their population.

Data is sourced from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research (HUD).

HUD’s 2024 estimates count more than 9 million Americans (27 per 1,000) currently receiving vouchers, public-housing units, or other subsidies.

Households typically pay 30% of their adjusted income (i.e. after taxes) as rent, and the government covers the rest.

Ranked: Americans Needing Rental Assistance, by State

D.C. stands out with 72 assisted renters per 1,000 residents.

That’s more than double the U.S. average of 27 and reflects both DC’s high housing costs, its population growth since 2000, and the limited growth in housing in the same time period.

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Trump admin. probe finds Democrat states spent over $1B in Medicaid funds on illegal aliens: ‘My team is getting it back’

The Trump administration announced that it is launching probes into Medicaid spending on illegal aliens in at least six Democrat run states in an attempt to expel waste, fraud, and abuse in the public healthcare system.

According to a preliminary audit conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon spent a total of $1,351,204,127 on healthcare for illegal aliens utilizing Medicaid funds, mostly during 2024 and 2025.

Utilizing federal Medicaid funds to provide healthcare coverage to illegal aliens is illegal under federal law; however, Medicaid funds can be used to cover emergency medical services for anyone, regardless of their immigration status.

The Trump administration is arguing that the Democrat states in question are providing comprehensive healthcare to illegal immigrants utilizing federal Medicaid funds, prompting the probe.

“Medicaid is by far the largest source of federal funding for states. It was originally intended to only provide aid for eligible beneficiaries, but, over time, states have figured out how to game the system, padding permitted expenses and diverting the profits to fund activities that are supposedly prohibited,” stated Manhattan Institute public health policy expert Chris Pope.

“Any claim that state healthcare expenditures don’t ultimately involve some form of federal funds should be regarded with suspicion,” he added.

Meanwhile, Democrat leaders from the list of states suspected of breaking federal law have argued that the probe is “based on an incorrect preliminary finding,” while arguing that their policies are in accordance with federal law.

“Our payments for coverage of undocumented individuals are in accordance with state and federal laws,” stated Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing spokesman Marc Williams. “The $1.5 million number referenced by federal leaders today is based on an incorrect preliminary finding, and has been refuted with supporting data by our Department experts.”

“It is disappointing that the administration is announcing this number as final when it is clearly overstated and the conversations are very much in the education and discussion phase,” he added.

According to the preliminary audit conducted by CMS, California spent over $1 billion in federal Medicaid funds on illegal immigrants, followed by Illinois, which reportedly spent nearly $30 million. Oregon spent the third most, according to the audit, totaling over $5 million.

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