A SNAP recipient checks her balance after purchasing groceries with a California EBT card in Los Angeles on October 31, 2025.
Damien Dovarganes/AP
hide caption
Damien Dovarganes/AP
In a major step in combating a form of fraud that has deprived food stamp recipients of millions of dollars, the Trump administration is proposing to require states to strengthen the security features of their food assistance cards.
In recent years, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, has been a repeated target of card theft, when thieves extract personal information from payment terminals and withdraw money from accounts. Most SNAP cards rely on a magnetic strip for swipe payment – which tends to be vulnerable to skimming because it doesn’t do a good job of securing the data stored on the cards.
Many banks in the United States took action against this problem more than a decade ago by upgrading their cards to include microchips and contactless payment, considered more secure. But states have lagged behind in implementing such a transition for electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards, which SNAP recipients use to access food assistance. Currently, fewer than a third of states have taken the plunge or are in the process of doing so, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Now, under the proposed rule released by the USDA last week, all states would have to adopt chip-enabled EBT cards. It also requires retailers that accept SNAP benefits to have payment terminals that support contactless payment. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Administration, which administers SNAP, attributed card skimming as the reason behind the proposal.
“These proposed changes will protect SNAP benefits from thieves and ensure that benefits are accessible to approved households,” the Food and Nutrition Administration said in its summary of the rule.
Last January, the USDA Office of Inspector General projected that SNAP theft could reach $233 million between 2025 and 2026, largely due to skimming. A recent ProPublica investigation found that last year, $470 million was electronically stolen from SNAP recipients. The total was calculated using data from Propel, an app that helps SNAP recipients check their food benefits.
In most states, stolen benefits are not replaced, forcing recipients to make difficult choices, like skipping meals or borrowing money to pay for groceries, according to Propel.
Earlier this month, NPR reported that modernizing food assistance cards had broad support from state officials and federal watchdogs, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But money has been a major obstacle for states wanting to make this change. According to the Government Accountability Office, chip cards are about 10 times more expensive to produce than their magnetic stripe counterparts.
The federal push to strengthen the cards’ security features comes as state SNAP agencies face new budget pressures triggered by President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The proposed rule acknowledges the financial barrier, adding that USDA wants to hear from state agencies about the cost burden.
“As stewards of taxpayer dollars, the Department considers these administrative costs a necessary investment to prevent the loss of federally funded SNAP benefits,” the proposed rule states.
The public has 60 days to submit comments on the proposal before USDA issues a final rule. The department is considering giving states a two-year deadline from the date of publication to implement the rule, but it also welcomed comments on whether that deadline was sufficient.
When asked if the department would consider providing funds to help states improve their card technology, the USDA stated that “For years, states have had access to administrative funds to stop this blatant abuse of taxpayer resources. Yet few have acted. »
The USDA added that the proposed rule has been in the works for nearly four years. It estimates the changes will reduce stolen benefits by at least $1.5 billion over the next decade.
SNAP has been one of the focus areas of the Trump administration’s war on fraud. Last week, the Justice Department announced that its fraud division helped uncover nearly $42 million in schemes targeting food benefits. Investigations ranged from identity theft to retailers illegally exchanging cash for food perks.
Gn headline
