As long as there have been entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicaid, welfare – there have been debates about whether or not the government should be in the business of writing out checks to its citizenry. Regardless we can all agree that these programs certainly shouldn’t be writing checks to terrorists!
And yet Senate Republicans are preparing to make a deal with Democrats that would enable exactly that.
It’s a big claim, but let me explain. The federal government spent roughly $100 billion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps in 2024, but at least $10.5 billion of that was lost to improper payments, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some of this is plain old ordinary fraud, some of it was to illegal immigrants stealing from the system, and some of it was funneled into the coffers of Islamic terror group Al-Shabaab.
The issue has drawn the attention from Secretary Scott Bessent who has directed the Department of the Treasury to investigate these claims “to ensure Americans’ taxes are not funding acts of global terror.”
So we need to not do this. We need accountability measures to keep fraud, waste, and abuse to an absolute minimum. It will be awful if after the next 9/11, we have to tell the victims’ families that Uncle Sam had accidentally paid to help terrorists.
Last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act took a first step in the right direction toward accountability. The OBBBA created the first real accountability mechanism ever attached to SNAP food stamp benefit spending. For the first time since the program’s creation in 1964, states with payment error rates at or above 6% will have to chip in 5–15% of benefit costs starting in FY2028, and states will cover 75% of administrative costs instead of 50%.
This level of accountability out of Washington is refreshing. Rather than some kind of fringe policy that can be dismisses as “MAGA,” the OBBBA’s anti-fraud measures are supported by a swath of institutions across the political spectrum, such as the Foundation for Government Accountability which has laid out concrete steps for rooting out fraud.
When Washington foots the bill, states have had little incentive to scrutinize their own accuracy. They’re basically robbing taxpayers from other states. But under OBBBA, states will pay a penalty for allowing welfare fraud. And this kind of fraud is not restricted to food stamps. Social welfare programs in California under Gov. Gavin Newsom are estimated to have lost $180 billion alone!
But unsurprisingly there are elements within the Democrat Party (and so-called establishment Republicans) who want to maintain the status quo – because they doubtless benefit from the fraud. Alaska has the worst recorded fraud rate at almost 25%!
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) want to use the upcoming Farm Bill to sneak in provisions that will delay the cost-shift for all states before it takes effect in 2028. Worryingly, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-La.) indicated he’s willing to overturn OBBBA, saying, “It’s not fraud, it’s just sloppiness.” With all due respect, it’s a bit more than sloppiness when taxpayer money is getting funneled to terrorist groups.
It’s not just conservatives raising the alarm about the farm bill fraud giveaway. The Washington Post editorial board wrote, “With the national debt at $39.2 trillion, saving $10 billion a year might not seem like much. But the squabble underscores how hard it is for the federal government to pick even the lowest-hanging fruit.” Meanwhile The Wall Street Journal wrote, “The Administration also deserves credit for going after fraud and waste. The Agriculture Department ferreted data from 28 states and says it found nearly 186,000 dead recipients.”
Recently released Rainey Center Freedom Project polling finds that 67% of voters including 81% of Trump voters and 64% of independents support the cost-sharing provision. Only 15% of voters oppose the provision. Even among Harris voters, a majority support the provision. Support for reform is bipartisan and deep.
Not surprisingly, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has been on the right side of the issue, having last year introduced the SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act, which became the anti-fraud provisions in OBBBA. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) has also long shown support for reform for social welfare programs because, “If we don’t act now, we risk breaking the very system we’re trying to protect. And when that happens, those who will suffer most are the very people we set out to help.”
Republicans need to hold the line – and Democrats need to get in line – on government accountability. Republicans should encourage Sen. Boozman to hold the line and not negotiate away a hard-earned victory. The Rainey Center Freedom Project polling also contains a warning to Republicans who cave: a majority of very conservative voters would support a primary challenge against them. Our fiscal situation cannot continue to survive business as usual fraud, and funneling food stamp money to terrorists is a bad way to recognize the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Jared Whitley is a longtime DC politico, having worked in the US Senate and White House. He was recently honored as one of the best columnists in the state by the Society of Professional Journalists.
