As Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients brace for potential benefit interruptions during the ongoing federal government shutdown, Minnesota is drawing attention for something else: federal data showing the state’s food assistance skyrocketed at a rate unmatched anywhere in the country.
Rep. Pam Altendorf, R-Red Wing, recently took to social media to highlight how Minnesota saw a 174% increase in SNAP issuance between fiscal years 2020 and 2021 — the largest one-year jump of any state in the nation, according to federal data.
“Granted, this happened during the year of Covid, however no other state has seen anything close to an increase like this,” Altendorf said in a press release.
⁉️WHY is Minnesota refusing to give Federal Gov’t our SNAP records…!?
I think I found what the @MinnesotaDFL is hiding.
🧐LOOK⬇️⬇️⬇️at this chart showing MN with a 174% SNAP issuance increase from 2020 to 2021.
❌NO other state even coming close!😳🤯 https://t.co/WikDkqzaUB pic.twitter.com/tc9zALgQ44
— Pam Altendorf (@PamAltendorf) November 3, 2025
“No one wants people to go hungry who truly need assistance,” Altendorf added. “But we also cannot turn a blind eye to potentially massive fraud happening through the SNAP program.”
Federal SNAP issuance in Minnesota reached more than $1.5 billion in FY 2023, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, nearly triple the number from four years earlier.
Altendorf said the size and speed of the increase should raise alarm.
“When you increase a program expense by more than $1 billion in four years, especially in this state, it just reeks of another potential undiscovered fraud,” she said. “It’s time to investigate why SNAP issuances rose so dramatically and who is receiving these funds.”
Trump administration requested state data for review
President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have directed states to provide detailed SNAP recipient data for a nationwide audit “to better understand how this explosion of SNAP benefits happened under Joe Biden.”
“We sent letters to every governor in America being very clear that no illegal aliens can use SNAP — zero, zero, zero,” Rollins said in a recent Fox News interview. “We studied about $100 billion in spend and found thousands and thousands of illegal use of the EBT card.”
Rollins said investigators identified individuals receiving benefits in multiple states, and found about 5,000 deceased individuals still listed as active recipients.
“We found one guy in six different states getting a benefit,” she said.
The Trump administration reports that nearly 700,000 ineligible recipients have been removed from SNAP rolls and 118 arrests have been made since January, according to Rollins.
Rollins recently described SNAP as “so bloated, so broken, so dysfunctional, so corrupt that it is astonishing when you dig in.”
Minnesota joins lawsuit
Minnesota is not among the states that have provided the Trump administration with the requested SNAP recipient files, according to NPR. Altendorf notes that 29 states have complied, but Minnesota remains one of 21 states holding out.
According to Altendorf, states that have provided their data have already uncovered fraud and corrected errors. Minnesota, she said, remains in the dark.
“We have become accustomed to new government fraud schemes being uncovered almost weekly, with billions of dollars already stolen from the taxpayers under Governor Walz’s watch,” she said.
Minnesota Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, agreed, saying on social media: “At this point, Minnesotans should be concerned about rampant fraud in every program administered by the incompetent Walz administration.”
SNAP is a federal program administered by the states.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and 21 other state attorneys general filed a lawsuit in July arguing the USDA’s data demand is unconstitutional and would expose over 400,000 Minnesotans’ personal information, including Social Security numbers and home addresses.
“Outrageously, the Trump Administration is now demanding sensitive personal information on the Minnesotans receiving help to feed themselves and their families so they can potentially weaponize it to harm people,” Ellison said in a press release.
The lawsuit claims the data could be used for immigration enforcement, not SNAP administration.
Altendorf maintains that transparency is non-negotiable.
“Only eligible Minnesotans should be given this aid,” she said. “If we don’t take this seriously, the people who suffer are the ones who need this assistance.”
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
