Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins suggested that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency could be brought into the USDA to help improve the efficiency of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal benefits program that helps low-or-no-income individuals “maintain” or “supplement their grocery budget so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and well-being,” according to USDA.
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Rollins was confirmed with strong bipartisan support, but she did clash with Democrats during her confirmation hearing when repeatedly suggesting that SNAP and other food benefits programs could be run more effectively. She previously backed attaching work requirements to the benefits program.
Rollins told the Washington Examiner Friday at the White House that she “is not sure” if DOGE has plans to examine those programs but added that she “would welcome DOGE to be involved.”
“Anytime you could get a sort of a business perspective on ‘are we hitting our goals? What are the metrics? What is the metric for success?’ Oftentimes, these government programs are started with the idea that you’re going to help people. It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up,” she continued. “And then years later, the government — the programs are even bigger, and you’ve got more people on them.”
Rollins stressed that the administration “will never take food out of a hungry child’s mouth” but said that SNAP had grown beyond its original mission.
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“We really have to look at where that money is going, what it’s being spent on. I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, do we have the healthiest choices? So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they ok with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious,” Rollins closed. “These are all massive questions we’re going to be asking and working on in the coming months and years, and I look forward to solving some of these major, major issues for this country.”
Federal benefits programs have come under increased scrutiny as Musk pursues President Donald Trump’s quest to shrink the federal budget and bureaucracy.
Musk joined Trump in the Oval Office earlier this week, where he told reporters that DOGE had uncovered a breadth of allegedly fraudulent Social Security payments and suggested additional action could be taken. Trump promised on the campaign trail to “fight for” the program, including eliminating taxes on Social Security payments.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a war is brewing within the Republican caucus regarding the president’s stalled tax agenda. As the price tag for renewing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts continues to grow, Republicans have gingerly begun looking at potential changes to Medicaid and other entitlements as potential budgetary offsets.
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“We’re not going to do anything with that unless we can find some abuse or waste,” Trump recently said of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. “The people won’t be affected. It will only be more effective and better.”
