Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has mandated that Minnesota undertake a recertification process for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries in four counties, following a significant welfare fraud investigation that has resulted in a loss of at least $1 billion for taxpayers.
In an official communication to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Rollins emphasized the necessity for the state to engage in a pilot initiative aimed at detecting and eliminating fraudulent activities and misuse within the program.
Rollins stated, “During the recertification process, ensure that SNAP households in Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, and Wright counties comply with all eligibility criteria, which includes considering the income and resources of any excluded household members, conducting face-to-face interviews, and utilizing federal eligibility tools such as the enhanced, no-cost Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program database.”
She continued, “After reviewing the data collected through the recertification process, determine the eligibility of each SNAP household in the specified counties and remove any households that do not meet the criteria from the program.”
In her efforts to clamp down on misuse of the SNAP program, USDA Secretary Rollins has explicitly called on Minnesota to reassess SNAP beneficiaries in the designated counties, according to her letter to Governor Walz. (iStock/Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Typically, the recertification process for SNAP benefits requires recipients to submit proof of their eligibility to continue receiving assistance.
In the past, Rollins alleged that hundreds of thousands of deceased people were receiving SNAP benefits and that some were getting benefits more than once.
The move came amid a scandal during Walz’s watch in which nonprofits like Feeding Our Future, primarily in the Somali community, allegedly defrauded taxpayers of at least $1 billion.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is under fire amid a massive fraud scandal in his state. (Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
On Monday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon urged Walz to resign over the fraud. She said her agency uncovered a scheme in which “ghost students” in Minnesota that left Riverland Community College averaging more than 100 potentially fraudulent applications per year.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides federal food aid to more than 40 million Americans each month. (Fox News) (Olivianna Calmes)
“We call these fraudsters ‘ghost students’ because they were not ID-verified and often did not live in the United States, or they simply did not exist,” McMahon wrote. “In Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest — without attending the college at all.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the governor’s office.
