PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced last week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will require Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to re-apply for their benefits to prevent fraud.
Rollins revealed on Newsmax that data from states showed “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.” KATU has not independently confirmed this level of fraud.
KATU reached out to the USDA to find out how this will impact SNAP recipients. A spokesperson provided the following statement:
Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends. Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States.
We followed up with the USDA, asking them a slew of questions including when recipients will have to reapply, whether benefits will stop, if eligibility requirements will change, and how the government has discovered fraud.
We have not yet heard back.
KATU also reached out to the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) for information on federal directives. A spokesperson said us they have not yet heard anything, and that they cannot start a re-application process without clear direction.
Scott Kerman, Executive Director of the Blanchet House and Farm, expressed concern over the changes, saying, “These kinds of disruptions…almost a frantic pace of rule changes, the flip-flopping of back and forth, you know? What’s the rule? I mean, how do you keep up with it? I have a hard time keeping up with it. And this is my job. It just furthers the stress and the anxiety and the trauma that people are experiencing.”
Meanwhile, SNAP recipients are concerned due to the uncertainty of what could happen to their benefits.
“Am I going to go hungry some days? It makes me wonder what the outcome is going to be,” said Leroy Daniels, a SNAP recipient in Portland. “I’m dumbfounded at what to do.”
On the other hand, another SNAP recipient, Jeremy Rutherford, is OK with the uncertainty of losing his benefits, even if he has to improvise. “Who knows how many dead people are getting benefits?” said Rutherford.
Kerman is also worried about the burden this could impose on vulnerable people.
“It’s placing extraordinary burdens on people who are often in the in the worst position to manage those situations,” said Kerman. “I think one of the things that we always try to impress upon people is the trauma of being poor, the trauma of being homeless.”
