USDA proposes requiring chip cards for SNAP benefits in all 50 states

Vance says low-income families are often the victims of SNAP fraud

The Trump administration announced an overhaul of the nation’s food stamp payment system on Friday, proposing that all 50 states replace magnetic-stripe SNAP benefit cards with chip-enabled cards and tap-to-pay technology. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration issued the proposed rule, which follows a ProPublica investigation published a week earlier showing that $470 million in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were stolen from recipients last year, in large part because the cards are technologically outdated.

The investigation highlighted victims’ experiences and examined repeated failures by Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to upgrade Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, cards nationally. ProPublica’s reporting was shared around the department, according to two USDA officials.

The proposed rule has been in the works since 2023 but was continually delayed until now. The reasons included understaffing at the USDA, especially in the wake of the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts last year, and a backlog of other regulations that the White House budget office had prioritized. White House and USDA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sudden shift.

The rule would mandate that all 50 states move from EBT cards with just a magnetic stripe on the back, which are easy for criminals to skim data from, to cards with digital microchips, which credit and debit cards have had for more than a decade, and tap-to-pay technology. It would also create new federal “SNAP EBT Operating Standards” to be revised on an ongoing basis, so that federal agencies and states can keep pace with best practices in the credit card industry and the changing tactics of fraudsters.

A handful of states have already made the transition on their own, including California, where the theft of SNAP and other public benefits was reduced by 83% in two years after the technology was adopted. More than 40 states have not added chips. Hundreds of thousands of lower-income Americans continue to show up at grocery store checkout lines only to find that their food assistance for the month has been drained by thieves. NPR and other news outlets have also recently reported on this crisis.

Members of the public, including state SNAP administrators and grocery store owners who may have logistical questions about how to overhaul their EBT systems, now have 60 days to submit comments on the regulation. Agency officials will review those comments before the rule is formally enacted. After that, states will have two years to switch to chip cards, though their ability to meet that deadline depends on several factors. Many are budget-strapped, in large part because President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed states’ funding for administering their SNAP programs — money they could have used to upgrade their EBT systems and print and mail new cards.

Multiple current and former Food and Nutrition Administration officials, along with state program administrators, told ProPublica they worry the agency is mandating expensive changes for states while Congress has so far shown little sign it will provide federal funding for the chip card transition. The Senate’s version of this year’s Farm Bill includes money for that purpose; the House version does not. Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over overall SNAP spending, and it is unclear what will happen. The estimated total federal and state cost of the change is $283 million, compared with more than $600 million in SNAP and other benefits stolen from existing cards every year.

Justin King, a longtime safety net advocate who is now policy director for Propel, a company that helps SNAP recipients access their benefit information, called the national mandate “a big deal for low-income households.” He said he was “legit surprised” by the administration’s decision. “Theft rings don’t care about state lines. You’re just squeezing a balloon if you update one state at a time,” King said of states continuing to adopt chip cards without a federal requirement. “A national standard means there’s nowhere left to go” for criminals, he said.

Vice President JD Vance also addressed SNAP theft this week. On Wednesday, while barnstorming in Ohio for Republican candidates, Vance, whose roles include serving as the administration’s “fraud czar,” called a press conference and emphasized that low-income families are often the victims of SNAP fraud.

That emphasis ran against his past comments. “There are people who have Lamborghinis who currently receive SNAP benefits,” he previously said. For ProPublica’s earlier article, research reporter Gabriel Sandoval reviewed dozens of speeches, social media posts and press accounts of statements made by Vance and other Trump officials, and found that they have consistently portrayed SNAP recipients as the perpetrators of fraud.

Vance also spoke about the program itself in language that differed from his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” in which he wrote that SNAP recipients in Kentucky and Ohio “live off of government largesse” and said that people in that part of the country are largely “hardworking, except of course for the many food stamp recipients who show little interest in honest work.” From a stage in southern Ohio this week, Vance said: “Step back for a minute and realize that the [SNAP] program is one of the most important social service programs that we have in the United States of America.” He said food stamps ensure that “all of our fellow citizens, particularly children, are able to have a full belly at the end of every single night, that regardless of whether they can pay for a meal, we don’t let American children and American families go hungry. That is one of the most important and sacred things that our tax dollars go to.” The White House and Vance’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his rhetorical about-face.

Vance then had Attorney General Todd Blanche and other top officials provide more detail on recent SNAP theft prosecutions. Those included several ongoing EBT card skimming cases in Oregon, in which criminal groups had allegedly pilfered the SNAP account numbers and PINs of legitimate beneficiaries and used that data to buy bulk quantities of goods like energy drinks and baby formula, which the scammers resold for over $3 million. ProPublica reported on that type of case last week.

“The simple reality is that it is actually a very tough thing to go through a [grocery store checkout] line with kids,” Vance said. “To present that card, to expect to be able to take that food home to your family, to be able to cook it and provide a meal for your kids, and to be told that because of the theft of a fraudster, that you are being rejected. And there are hundreds of thousands of families all across our country, all across the state of Ohio who have had that experience.”

The rule is not yet final. Comments are due within 60 days, and states would then have two years to switch to chip cards. The funding question remains open: current and former Food and Nutrition Administration officials and state program administrators said they have seen little sign that Congress will provide money for the transition, and Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over overall SNAP spending, leaving the level of federal support unclear.