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Tag: Brooke Rollins

  • Trump administration releases SNAP benefits amid new work requirements

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    The Trump administration has released all withheld funds for November SNAP benefits to states for distribution, while new work requirements are set to change the program for many of its 42 million participants.SNAP participants should receive their December benefits according to their normal schedule, but now, there’s an extra step beneficiaries need to take to receive this assistance. President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” expanded requirements for many SNAP recipients to work, volunteer, or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. The law also expands the age limit of people who need to meet these requirements from 54 to 64. People who do not meet these rules can be exempt for up to 3 months during a 3-year period. The new requirements took effect when the law was signed in July and were suspended for November amid the government shutdown, meaning December will be the first time many face enforcement of the new standards. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the new requirements are expected to reduce the average monthly number of SNAP recipients by about 2.4 million people over the next 10 years.”I think we’re looking forward to USDA to having a broad-based discussion to ensure that every dollar that we spend here goes to someone who legally qualifies for the program and is actually in need,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden.Under federal law, most households must report their income and basic information every four to six months and be fully recertified for SNAP at least every year. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested SNAP recipients should be required to reapply, though it is unclear whether she is proposing adding an additional step to what’s already in place.Rollins said the Agriculture Department asked states to send in SNAP data. She says they received information from 29 states and found that 186,000 deceased men, women and children were receiving a check for SNAP benefits. Rollins noted 120 Americans have been arrested for SNAP fraud and added half a million people were receiving benefits twice. The secretary says structural changes to SNAP will be announced after Thanksgiving. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    WASHINGTON —

    The Trump administration has released all withheld funds for November SNAP benefits to states for distribution, while new work requirements are set to change the program for many of its 42 million participants.

    SNAP participants should receive their December benefits according to their normal schedule, but now, there’s an extra step beneficiaries need to take to receive this assistance.

    President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” expanded requirements for many SNAP recipients to work, volunteer, or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. The law also expands the age limit of people who need to meet these requirements from 54 to 64.

    People who do not meet these rules can be exempt for up to 3 months during a 3-year period. The new requirements took effect when the law was signed in July and were suspended for November amid the government shutdown, meaning December will be the first time many face enforcement of the new standards.

    The Congressional Budget Office reports that the new requirements are expected to reduce the average monthly number of SNAP recipients by about 2.4 million people over the next 10 years.

    “I think we’re looking forward to USDA to having a broad-based discussion to ensure that every dollar that we spend here goes to someone who legally qualifies for the program and is actually in need,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden.

    Under federal law, most households must report their income and basic information every four to six months and be fully recertified for SNAP at least every year.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested SNAP recipients should be required to reapply, though it is unclear whether she is proposing adding an additional step to what’s already in place.

    Rollins said the Agriculture Department asked states to send in SNAP data. She says they received information from 29 states and found that 186,000 deceased men, women and children were receiving a check for SNAP benefits. Rollins noted 120 Americans have been arrested for SNAP fraud and added half a million people were receiving benefits twice.

    The secretary says structural changes to SNAP will be announced after Thanksgiving.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • SNAP benefits update: Trump admin says ‘everyone’ will have to reapply

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    The Trump administration has revealed plans to make all current SNAP recipients reapply for their benefits in an attempt to prevent fraud.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Newsmax on Thursday the plan is to “have everyone reapply for their benefits, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through … food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”

    SNAP fraud can occur when incorrect information is submitted, intentionally or unintentionally, such as misstated income, household size, or identity. Errors can be intentional, or in some cases arise from caseworker mistakes, outdated employer payroll data, or confusion over complex rules. Misusing benefits, such as by exchanging SNAP benefits for cash, is also considered fraud.

    State SNAP agencies already require recipients to recertify their details as often as every six months, and households are expected to report any updates to their employment situation, income, or other personal information.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Deal between the US and China is undoing damage from a self-inflicted trade war

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    BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — Three-digit tariffs are off the table, but import duties on each other are higher than in January.

    Rare earth materials will flow more smoothly, but China has put in place an export permitting regime that it can tighten or loosen as needed.

    Port fees will go away, but only for one year.

    And Beijing is again buying U.S. soybeans after it had abruptly cut off American farmers.

    After months of posturing, arguing and threatening, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have essentially turned back the clock. While the meeting between the two leaders was hailed by Trump as a “roaring success,” the agreement that came out of it may only serve to undo some of the damages Trump inflicted with his trade war upon his return to the White House.

    “It is hard to see what major gains the U.S. has made in the bilateral relationship relative to where things stood before Trump took office,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University.

    On the Senate floor, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday denounced the deal out of South Korea as leaving the U.S. as “no better off.”

    “If anything, things are worse: Prices have gone up and China has agreed to nothing of substance that will improve trade between our nations,” the Democrat senator said, adding that Trump “started a trade war, created a giant mess for businesses, consumers, and soybean farmers, and then he celebrates for trying to clean up the very mess he created in the first place.”

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    Nevertheless, the deal has injected a degree of stability, giving the world’s two largest economies — as well as the rest of the world — time and room to readjust.

    Washington and Beijing still need to finalize their agreements, a process that always has the potential for fresh disputes. But for now, Xi appears interested in moving past the latest tensions.

    In an official statement, Xi referred to “recent twists and turns” that “offered some lessons for both sides.” He said they should be “focusing on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation.”

    Both sides reduce tariffs, resume soybean sales to China

    Trump fired the first shot in the trade war in February when he imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods over the allegation that Beijing failed to stem the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl. That soared to as much as 145% after China retaliated, but Trump walked it back following market meltdowns.

    The two sides in May slashed their massive tariffs to 10% on each other, while Washington retained the 20% fentanyl-related tariff, and China its retaliatory tariffs of 10% or 15% on U.S. farm goods.

    Now, Trump said he has removed one 10% fentanyl tariff in exchange for Beijing’s cooperation in fighting the illicit drug.

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said China would also withdraw the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Beijing would “adjust accordingly” its countermeasures without giving details.

    In addition, China has agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of U.S. beans through January, and will buy at least 25 million metric tons annually for next three years, Rollins said on Thursday.

    That compares to China buying 17 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the first eight months of this year but importing zero in September. In 2024, China bought 22 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans, according to state media.

    Although China did not confirm the details of the latest soybean deal, the spokesperson for the Chinese commerce ministry said the two sides have reached “consensus” to expand agricultural trade.

    One-year truce on export controls and port fees

    In April, China used its monopoly power in the processing of critical minerals to institute a permitting requirement for the export of several rare earth elements. On October 9, Beijing expanded the export rules, apparently in response to the U.S. decision to extend export controls to businesses affiliated with already-blacklisted foreign companies.

    Furious, Trump threatened to impose a new 100% tariff on China, but the two sides managed to cool down in time for Trump to meet Xi in South Korea.

    Beijing on Thursday said it would pause for a year the rare earth export rules from October to “conduct research to refine specific plans,” while the U.S. will suspend its affiliate rule for one year.

    The delay by Beijing “provides just enough time for the United States to accelerate investment in capabilities and innovation for rare earths and permanent magnets,” said Wade Senti, president of the U.S. permanent magnet company AML. “This needs to be on warp speed and at a scale never seen before since the COVID-19 response,” he said.

    Another fresh thorn was the U.S. introduction of port fees in October targeting China-linked vessels, as part of a plan to restore America’s shipbuilding capabilitie s. Beijing answered with countermeasures against the U.S.

    The port fees on each other are not removed but will be suspended for one year, the Chinese commerce ministry said.

    The future is still uncertain

    Whether Trump accepts a return to the status quo or pushes to address fundamental issues that have persisted for years between the U.S. and China remains unclear. Nothing about Thursday’s meeting — the first between Trump and Xi in six years — affects Chinese manufacturing dominance that Trump has blamed for the loss of American blue collar jobs.

    Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, called the latest developments “very encouraging” and added: “We hope that future negotiations will address long-standing market access barriers, help level the playing field for U.S. companies, and bring long-term predictability to the bilateral trade relationship.”

    There are more opportunities on the horizon to keep working on these challenges. Trump said he will go to China in April and Xi will visit the U.S. after that.

    If Trump isn’t successful, this period could be remembered for a lot of sound and fury but no change in the basic trajectory of China’s ascendant economy.

    “Generally, Trump grows impatient with anything beyond the immediate, and it is the Chinese that play for longer term advantage,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration and now chairman of The Asia Group.

    ___

    Tang and Wiseman reported from Washington. AP writer Josh Funk in Omaha, Neb., contributed to the report

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  • Trump considers massive bailout of at least $10 billion for American farmers hurt by his trade war

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    Washington (CNN) — American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN.

    Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year.

    Farm bankruptcies rose in the first half of the year to the highest level since 2021, according to US courts data.

    Trump’s policies have exacerbated those woes, from the deportation of the industry’s key migrant workforce to renewed trade tensions between the United States and China. And for traditional American crops, such as soybeans, the situation has grown particularly precarious.

    “There’s no doubt that the farm economy is in a significant challenge right now, especially our row croppers,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters Tuesday. “So not just soybeans, although I think they’re probably the top of the list, but corn, wheat, sorghum, cotton, et cetera.”

    Indeed, the US soybean industry has become the poster child of the farm economy’s plight in the first year of Trump’s second term. The president recognizes these problems, White House officials tells CNN, and has increased pressure on his administration to address them urgently.

    Over the past few weeks, the White House has held a series of interagency meetings with the Departments of Agriculture and Treasury as they attempt to finalize a relief package for US farmers, the sources said. Discussions over the best way to aid the agriculture industry are ongoing, the officials said, but they have zeroed in on two options.

    “There are a lot of levers we can use to help ease the pain they are feeling,” one of the officials told CNN. One idea, floated publicly by Trump as recently as Wednesday, is to give farmers a percentage of the income the United States is receiving from the administration’s tariffs on goods being imported into the country.

    “We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN!” Trump wrote on social media this week. The other is tapping into a “slush fund,” as the officials described it, at the Department of Agriculture.

    The Trump administration also dipped into the fund, known as Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), in March to similarly provide assistance to farmers. USDA at the time issued $10 billion in direct payments to eligible agricultural producers of eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year.

    The administration has also discussed implementing a combination of the two, depending on where they can most quickly pull the funds from, one White House official said. The current range of aid they are looking to offer ranges from $10 billion to $14 billion.

    “The final figure will depend on how much farmers need and the amount of tariff revenue coming in,” the official told CNN.

    Trump himself as privately been applying pressure on his team to ensure that American farmers, many of whom the Trump administration credit for helping the president win the November 2024 election, are protected. But the other reason they are making the agriculture industry such a priority, officials say, is because the Trump administration views protecting farmers as a national security issue.

    “We need to grow our own food. We can’t rely on imports from other countries, that poses a problem for national security. And right now, the government is subsidizing a lot of that process,” one Trump administration official argued.

    US soybean industry in crisis

    An issue complicating the Trump administration’s goals revolve around soybeans — America’s largest agricultural export, valued at more than $24 billion in 2024, according to USDA data.

    Last year, about half of those exports went to China, but since May, that’s dropped down to zero as a result of an effective embargo China has placed on US soybeans in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on the country. China has implemented 20% tariffs on US soybeans, making the crop from other countries significantly more attractive.

    That couldn’t come at worse time for soybean farmers, with the harvest season in full swing and some farms reporting strong yields. And their luck might not change anytime soon, with Beijing ramping up its reliance on South America — inadvertently aided the US Treasury’s financial lifeline provided to Argentina in recent weeks.

    A combine harvester during a soybean harvest at a farm outside St. Peter, Minnesota. Credit: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg / Getty Images via CNN Newsource

    Last week, the Trump administration said it would arrange a $20 billion lifeline to Argentina’s central bank, which would exchange US dollars for pesos to help stabilize Argentina’s financial market. Argentina also temporarily scrapped export taxes on grains to help stabilize the peso, but China didn’t waste any time.

    Beijing purchased “at least 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans,” according to a report from Reuters. Brazil has also helped meet China’s demand for soybeans, with both countries announcing a pact in July to deepen agricultural trade ties.

    As a result, America’s hobbled soybean industry is calling on the Trump administration to finish its trade negotiations with China.

    “US soybean farmers have been clear for months: the administration needs to secure a trade deal with China. China is the world’s largest soybean customer and typically our top export market,” American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland said last week in a statement.

    Pressure on Trump

    Many farmers say time is of the essence as they start to bring in this year’s crop.

    “We’re always hopeful that those negotiations are moving forward, but yet with harvest here, patience may be running thin,” one Indiana farmer told CNN, describing the industry’s many challenges, which also include the deportation of key workers.

    Trump has heard the calls for action.

    On Wednesday, Trump blamed China for the pain soybean farmers are facing, arguing Beijing is refusing to buy soybeans for negotiating purposes amid the two countries’ tariff dispute. He added that he plans to make soybeans “a major topic of discussion” when he meets face-to-face with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea next month.

    Part of the reason Trump has given the issue so much attention, White House officials say, is because Rollins has forced the issue with not only the president, but also one of his closest advisers: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

    On Tuesday, a photo of Bessent’s phone captured by the Associated Press went viral, showing a text from a contact named “BR,” presumed to be Rollins. Her messages illustrated panic within the Trump administration over the soybean industry’s woes, which worsened over the Argentina ordeal.

    During this “time of uncertainty” for farmers and ranchers, Rollins said that she is in “constant communication” with the White House and partners across the government. Rollins also called Trump’s idea of temporarily giving tariff revenue to farmers “a very elegant solution.”

    “To this moment of uncertainty, the ability to offset any payments to the farmers through potential tariff revenue is really where the president wants us to head, and that’s what we’re looking at,” she added.

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    Alayna Treene, Bryan Mena and CNN

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