AFPI Minnesota Responds to 40% SNAP Error Spike in their State

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today released a statement from Zach Freimark, executive director of AFPI Minnesota, in response to a forty percent increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reporting.

Minnesota millionaire Rob Undersander has warned for years that the Minnesota’s SNAP rules let someone like him, with well over a million dollars to his name, legally collect benefits. The state brushed him off, and this week's federal report demonstrates the cost of ignoring these warnings, due to new federal cost-sharing requirements for states with higher error rates.

"Minnesota had every warning it needed to rebuild public trust in how it spends taxpayer dollars and refused to implement common-sense measures for its food stamp program, like asking applicants how much money they actually have. Now the bill is coming due,” stated Freimark. “The USDA data released this week puts Minnesota's payment error rate for Fiscal Year 2025 at 12.58 percent, a 40 percent jump in a single year. When nearly 13 cents of every dollar is misspent, that is not a clerical hiccup. It is a sign that the people running this program either cannot or will not manage it. The state created this mess, but it is Minnesota taxpayers who will write the $130 million check to cover it."

To learn more about AFPI Minnesota, click here.