Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins boasted Tuesday that more than 4 million Americans had lost food stamps benefits in a crackdown on “fraud” – but federal data indicates participation dropped after the administration made funding cuts to the program and implemented work requirements.
“As of just a couple of days ago, we now have moved 4.3 million Americans off of the food stamp program,” Rollins told Fox Business. “A lot of that is fraud, a lot is people taking the program that shouldn’t have been.”
Between January 2025 and January 2026, roughly 4.2 million people stopped receiving food stamps, otherwise known as SNAP, benefits, according to data collected by the Department of Agriculture. The most significant decline in participation occurred after July 2025 with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which added more restrictions to SNAP.
Experts had warned that the federal government’s large funding cuts to the program, combined with stricter work requirements for able-bodied people between 18 and 64, and immigration status restrictions, would lead to more people losing SNAP benefits.
But Rollins, who has consistently accused SNAP of being riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, insisted the number of beneficiaries was declining because of a crackdown on fraud and because fewer people needed food stamps.
“And then a lot of it is just a better economy,” Rollins said Tuesday. “We’ve had a wage growth that has outpaced inflation for the first time since early 2021.”
“This is a really big day. So people don’t need food stamps,” the agriculture secretary said.
The Independent has asked the Food and Nutrition Service for data to support Rollins’ claim.
Federal data shows that between January 2025 and July 2025, roughly 815,000 people stopped receiving SNAP benefits. But between August 2025 and January 2026, after the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, more than 3.2 million people stopped receiving SNAP benefits.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal government would reduce SNAP funding by $186 billion over 10 years, a 20 percent reduction, according to an analysis from Harvard Kennedy School.
That means states will be more responsible for funding their programs beginning in 2027.
The bill also mandated that all able-bodied people, ages 18-64, who do not have children under the age of 14 must work, volunteer or participate in job training at least 80 hours a month to receive full SNAP benefits. While there are some exemptions, those people will only be permitted three months of food stamps every three years.
A recent report from The Hamilton Project found that work requirements do not increase employment but rather decrease SNAP participation.
Food bank operators across the country have said the new SNAP policy changes increase pressure on their services.
The law also restricts some immigrants with legal status from receiving SNAP benefits, such as people with refugee status or asylum seekers.
Proponents of SNAP reform say that the new regulations and restrictions will eliminate fraud in the social services program. The Food and Nutrition Services estimates that fraud accounts for roughly 1 percent of the program.
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