A bombshell revelation from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has exposed the staggering scale of fraud plaguing the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while simultaneously revealing that 21 states are actively fighting in court to prevent transparency—a pattern of federal corruption and secrecy that underscores why Texas must reclaim control over its own affairs.
The numbers are shocking. From data provided by just 29 states—mostly red states that complied with federal requests—Rollins announced that 186,000 dead people are currently receiving SNAP benefits, while another 500,000 recipients are fraudulently collecting double benefits. This represents data from only three months—February, March, and April 2025.
Protecting Fraud Over Taxpayers
What makes this scandal even more damaging is that 21 states are actively suing to prevent the federal government from collecting the data that would reveal the full extent of fraud in their jurisdictions. These states—including California, New York, Illinois, and others—have obtained court orders blocking the U.S. Department of Agriculture from accessing personal information about SNAP recipients.
The irony is stark: the federal government, which created and manages this program, is being blocked from overseeing it by the very states that benefit from federal funding. Michigan alone receives approximately $254 million in federal SNAP administrative funding, yet joined the lawsuit to prevent transparency about how those funds are being used.
As Secretary Rollins noted on social media, “Why block transparency unless the truth is worse than the headlines?” The question answers itself: these states know their fraud rates are catastrophic and would rather protect their bureaucratic empires than protect taxpayers.
Billions in Waste
Texas taxpayers are bearing a massive financial burden from this federal incompetence. While Texas has implemented restrictions on SNAP benefits to promote accountability, the state remains trapped in a federal system that hemorrhages money through fraud and abuse.
The scale of waste becomes clear when considering that if 29 states revealed nearly 700,000 fraudulent benefit cases, the full 50-state picture likely involves well over one million fraudulent recipients. With SNAP benefits averaging several hundred dollars per month per recipient, the total fraud could exceed billions annually—money that comes directly from Texas taxpayers through federal taxation.
Making matters worse, Texas has experienced its own SNAP-related data breaches, with state employees improperly accessing personal information of benefit recipients. At least nine state employees were fired after compromising data for 94,000 Texas benefit recipients, showing how federal programs create vulnerabilities even in states trying to maintain oversight.
Corruption Protected by Secrecy
This SNAP scandal exemplifies a broader pattern of federal dysfunction that Texas Nationalist Movement leaders have long documented. The federal government creates massive, unaccountable programs, then fights transparency efforts that would reveal their failures. When states try to provide oversight, federal bureaucrats threaten to withhold billions in administrative funding.
The 21-state lawsuit against transparency represents the worst of both worlds: states dependent on federal funding but unwilling to accept federal oversight, creating a system where nobody is truly accountable for waste and fraud. These states claim privacy concerns, but their real motivation is protecting bureaucratic empires built on fraudulent spending.
As Texas moves toward greater economic independence, examples like SNAP fraud demonstrate why federal dependency is so costly. An independent Texas could design targeted assistance programs with proper oversight, eliminating the massive fraud rates that plague federal bureaucracies.
The Independence Solution
The SNAP fraud revelation comes as Texas continues building the infrastructure for self-governance. TNM President Daniel Miller has consistently argued that federal programs like SNAP represent exactly the kind of “waste, fraud, and abuse” that makes federal dependency unsustainable for Texas.
Secretary Rollins announced a complete SNAP overhaul requiring all recipients to reapply and prove “they can’t survive without it.” But this federal reform effort faces the same structural problems that created the fraud: a massive, unaccountable bureaucracy managing programs across 50 different state systems, with no real oversight or coordination.
An independent Texas could eliminate these problems. Instead of sending billions to Washington to fund fraudulent programs, Texas could keep those resources in-state where they could be properly managed.
The SNAP fraud scandal reveals the federal system’s fundamental problem: it’s too big, too complex, and too corrupt to be reformed. With 186,000 dead people receiving benefits and 21 states actively blocking transparency, the system has moved beyond dysfunction into active protection of fraud. Texas taxpayers deserve better than funding a system that enriches fraudsters while fighting oversight.
As more revelations emerge about federal waste and corruption, the case for Texas independence grows stronger. Why should Texas taxpayers fund a system where dead people collect benefits while states sue to hide the evidence?
