In early November 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins claimed in a Fox News appearance that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — which helps about 1 in 8 Americans pay for food — “increased almost 40%” in “just a couple of years under the Biden administration.”
Social media users on X and Facebook shared a clip of Rollins’ allegation and circulated the 40% statistic.
Rollins did not explicitly state what about the program, exactly, increased by 40%, but she referenced the statistic while making allegations about SNAP use among immigrants in the country illegally, suggesting that she was likely referencing a supposed increase in SNAP enrollment. (Noncitizens count for less than five percent of SNAP recipients and undocumented immigrants do not qualify for SNAP.)
Other posts circulating rumors about SNAP explicitly alleged that enrollment in the program, specifically, increased by 40%, such as one Facebook post by Rep. John Rose, a Republican from Tennessee.
We have not rated this claim because it’s not clear what Rollins meant.
If she meant SNAP enrollment increased by almost 40%, then her allegation would be outright false. Enrollment did not increase drastically under Biden. USDA’s own data showed average monthly participation in SNAP increased from 41.6 million people in 2021 to 41.7 million in 2024. That’s a 0.24% increase.
If she meant the Biden administration increased monthly benefits by almost 40%, then Rollins’ claim would be misleading at best, because the USDA announced an increase of that percentage under U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, not Biden’s administration.
Rather than answer clarifying questions about Rollins’ remarks, USDA sent via email a link to its SNAP datasets, which Snopes used to disprove Rollins’ possible claims.
In an April 2020 news release (archived) from USDA, the agency said it increased “overall monthly SNAP benefits” on an emergency basis during the COVID-19 pandemic by 40% after Trump signed a law in 2020 allowing larger allotments for most SNAP households. Those benefits expired in 2023.
Here’s the relevant excerpt on Page 11 of Trump’s “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” (emphasis ours):
SEC. 2302. ADDITIONAL SNAP FLEXIBILITIES IN A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY. (a) In the event of a public health emergency declaration by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act based on an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) and the issuance of an emergency or disaster declaration by a State based on an outbreak of COVID– 19, the Secretary of Agriculture—
(1) shall provide, at the request of a State agency (as defined in section 3 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008) that provides sufficient data (as determined by the Secretary through guidance) supporting such request, for emergency allotments to households participating in the supplemental nutrition assistance program under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 to address temporary food needs not greater than the applicable maximum monthly allotment for the household size.
In other words, per USDA, an average 5-person household at the time received $528 a month in SNAP benefits — but the maximum benefit for 5-person households with no income was $768. The emergency benefits allowed the average household to receive the $768 per month instead, “bringing an average household up to the same benefit level as households already receiving the maximum,” the agency’s release said.
USDA data shows the average benefit per person increased by 39.4% between 2020 and 2021 (downloadable here). Total spending during that time period increased by 42.9%. While Biden was president in 2021, it would be inaccurate to say that Biden increased those benefits, because the emergency SNAP benefits came from the law signed by Trump.
(USDA)
From 2021 to 2024 — the length of Biden’s term — the average monthly benefit per person actually decreased by 13.4% due to the expiration of emergency SNAP benefits. The largest increase during his term happened between 2021 and 2022 at 6.5%.
Total cost of the program decreased during Biden’s administration from $113 billion to $100 billion.
For more rumors we’ve investigated about SNAP, see our collection here.
Sources
Jones, Jordan. “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Key Statistics and Research.” Www.ers.usda.gov, 6 Jan. 2025, www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/key-statistics-and-research.
Lowey, Nita M. “Text – H.R.6201 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Families First Coronavirus Response Act.” Www.congress.gov, 18 Mar. 2020, www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201/text.
“SNAP COVID-19 Emergency Allotments Guidance | USDA-FNS.” Www.fns.usda.gov, www.fns.usda.gov/snap/covid-19-emergency-allotments-guidance.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation and Costs. 8 Aug. 2025, fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/snap-annualsummary-8.pdf.
Tuquero, Loreben. “Majority of SNAP Recipients Are US Citizens.” Politifact, 3 Nov. 2025, www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/nov/03/tweets/SNAP-recipients-american-citizens/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
USDA. “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) | Food and Nutrition Service.” Usda.gov, www.fns.usda.gov/pd/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap.
“USDA Increases Monthly SNAP Benefits by 40%.” Usda.gov, 22 Apr. 2020, www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2020/04/22/usda-increases-monthly-snap-benefits-40. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
