Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins holds a press conference on the government shutdown with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Friday, October 31, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday threatened to cut off federal funding to Democratic-leaning states for refusing to share SNAP program data with the Trump administration.
Rollins told President Donald Trump during a White House Cabinet meeting that the administration will “begin halting federal funding to these states” starting next week “until they comply.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded to Rollins in an
Rollins said the department needs state-by-state data on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, “to root out this fraud and protect American taxpayers.”
He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture in February asked all 50 states “for the first time to submit data to the federal government.”
He said 29 “red states” have complied, but 21 “blue states continue to say no.”
Non-compliant states include California, New York and Minnesota, Rollins said. The governor’s offices in these three states did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
A USDA spokesperson later said in a statement to CNBC that “28 states and Guam have joined us in this fight. But of the 19 other blue states, states like California, New York, and Minnesota also continue to fight with us.”
The department has “established a SNAP Integrity Team” to analyze state data and “end indiscriminate welfare fraud,” a spokesperson said.
“We have sent additional data requests to Democratic states, and if they do not respond, they will be given a formal warning that USDA will withdraw administrative funding.”
Governor Maura Healey’s office told CNBC that Massachusetts has not yet received notice from the Trump administration about the seizure of federal funds.
But Healy still called Rollins’ threat “truly appalling and cruel.”
“Once again, the Trump administration is playing politics to ensure that working parents of children, seniors, and people with disabilities have access to food,” the governor said in a statement. “President Trump must order Secretary Rollins to immediately defund SNAP and prevent more Americans from going hungry.”
“We will no longer take the Trump administration’s words at face value. We will see what they actually do,” Marissa Saldivar, a spokeswoman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, told CNBC.
Saldivar added: “Cutting programs that feed America’s children is morally repugnant.”
Critics have long accused the Trump administration of trying to weaken the food stamp program.
The Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law in July, includes cuts to SNAP.
The administration then claimed during the government shutdown that it would not be able to pay out SNAP benefits in full in November due to a lack of funds appropriated by Congress. Multiple courts rejected the government’s efforts to halt these payments.
According to the USDA’s official website, approximately 42 million people will receive SNAP benefits each month in fiscal year 2024, most of them children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Rollins told the Cabinet that SNAP is plagued by “rampant fraud.” However, a fact sheet from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, citing data from fiscal year 2023, states that “the vast majority of SNAP benefits are being used as intended.” Of the approximately 262,000 SNAP-approved retailers, 1,980 were disqualified and 561 were fined during the same period, according to the fact sheet.
— CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons contributed to this report.
