Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer warned states of losing federal funding if they fail to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives on rewarding illegal immigrants with tax dollars, according to an April 25 statement issued by the Department of Labor.“Our nation’s unemployment benefits exist solely for workers who are eligible to receive them,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote in a letter addressed to state governors.“To qualify for unemployment, one must be able and available to work, actively seeking work, and be legally authorized to accept employment in the United States. Unemployment benefits are not a handout for those in our country illegally.”The...

(Washington, D.C., April 24, 2025) – Today, at the direction of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services John Walk issued guidance to all State agencies directing them to enhance identity and immigration verification practices when determining eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This guidance is one of many steps toward fulfilling President Trump’s Executive Order 14218, which directs USDA and other federal agencies to “enhance eligibility verification systems, to the maximum extent possible, to ensure that taxpayer funded benefits exclude any ineligible alien.” “President Trump has made...

This week, District of Columbia Judge Ibn al-Murderu ordered the restoration of the USAID funds designated for Hamas that he says "Secretary of State Marco Rubio has illegally canceled. The desire for government efficiency does not override the commitments made by the prior Biden Administration." ACLU spokesperson Bertram Petty praised the ruling, calling it "both correct and humane. Israel has cut off the humanitarian aid to Gaza that Hamas had been pilfering to supplement the contractual payments USAID had been making to the organization. This has made it impossible for Hamas to meet its payroll obligations to its fighters. These...

Administrative Law Judges Margo Stone (left, LinkedIn) and Som Ramrup (right, Association of ALJs) Dozens of administrative law judges grant disability payments to almost everyone who appears before them, overriding Social Security staff who determined the people were not entitled to payments, a Daily Wire analysis found. One of the Social Security Administration’s “regional chief administrative law judges,” Jennifer M. Horne, who leads the San Francisco hearing office, ruled in every case she heard last year that the claimant should be granted disability payments, even though in each case, two previous examinations had found the claimant should be denied. Ronald...

If HHS Secretary and healthy food advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his way, SNAP will stand for Soda Not Allowed Period. On Friday, Kennedy brought his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign to West Virginia, where Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that he will be seeking permission from the Department of Agriculture to put soda on the list of items that cannot be bought through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often referred to by its former name of food stamps, according to The Washington Post.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) proposed legislation on Tuesday, the Nutritious SNAP Act, aimed at reforming SNAP to ensure that those who use it are doing so for healthy food options. Paul’s office issued a release on Tuesday asserting that SNAP has been a contributing factor “in a new public health crisis — obesity and chronic disease — by subsidizing the purchase of junk food with taxpayer dollars.” “SNAP was designed to fight hunger and improve nutrition — not to subsidize soda and junk food,” Paul said. “It makes no sense that taxpayer dollars are being used to fund an epidemic...

@RepThomasMassie People should not be allowed to use food stamps (EBT) to purchase sugary drinks like Coke and Pepsi. Libertarian arguments about choice do not apply here. The money being used for EBT was extracted from taxpayers who have no choice in whether to give up their money.

The IRS is nearing a data-sharing agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow immigration officials to use tax data to support the Trump administration's deportation agenda, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. After weeks of negotiations, administration officials are close to reaching an agreement that would enable ICE officials to submit names and addresses of suspected immigrants lacking legal status for the IRS to check against its confidential databases. Section 6103 of the federal tax code requires the IRS to keep individual taxpayer information confidential with certain limited exceptions, which includes law enforcement agencies...

As DOGE’s efforts shift to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in social welfare programs including SNAP, Social Security, and Medicaid, The Drill Down podcast welcomes a nationally recognized expert in spotting how those programs are rife with fraud. Andrew McClenahan is, among other things, intergovernmental committee co-chair for an organization called the United Council on Welfare Fraud, and has investigated fraud in the food stamp program, including one bust several years ago that stopped a $100 million fraud scheme in South Florida. The group is made up of welfare fraud investigators from every state. In 2018, GAI published a report...

An analysis by Yale University has found that a budget plan being considered by Republican lawmakers would ultimately transfer wealth from the poorest 40 percent of Americans to the richest 1 percent. Researchers Harris Eppsteiner and John Ricco of Yale's Budget Lab found that the proposed GOP budget whose framework was supported last month in a vote by the House would include $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit the wealthy, along with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including to benefits for the public, including the poorest. Approximately $230 billion of those cuts would come from the Supplemental...

More than a million migrants benefited from the universal credit welfare scheme in Britain at a cost to the taxpayer of £7.6 billion in 2023 alone, an analysis of official data has found. Projections based on Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data conducted by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) have estimated that around 1,158,000 foreign nationals received universal credit, a monthly welfare subsidy paid to working-age households with low incomes, to mitigate the cost of housing, childcare, and other expenses. Migrants are eligible for the same benefits as native Britons once they are granted either refugee status or...

The American Heart Association is throwing its weight behind soda and junk food—literally. Instead of supporting legislation that would prevent food stamps from being used on sugary drinks and processed snacks, the AHA is fighting it. Why? Because it takes money from the very companies selling these products. Pepsi, Kellogg’s, and other big food corporations pump cash into the AHA, and in return, the organization defends policies that keep their products moving off the shelves, even at the expense of public health. The proposed legislation is simple. It aims to stop Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—taxpayer-funded assistance—from being used...

POV: 3K in food stamps and 7 kids and 7 babydaddies. We listen and don't judge.

Elon Musk spoke with Joe Rogan over the weekend, and had some powerful thoughts on illegals and entitlements fraud. After six weeks of uncovering untold horrors of waste, fraud and abuse in government through the DOGE project, Elon Musk spoke with Joe Rogan over the weekend about what he has learned from it: According to the RealClearPolitics transcript: ELON MUSK: At the heart of the sort of like, why is the Democrat propaganda machine so fired up to destroy me? That's the main reason. The main reason is that, is that, entitlements fraud, that includes, like, Social Security, disability, Medicaid,...

Speaking of the budget bulge, our friends at EPIC point out that the “entitlement” programs are two-thirds of the federal budget. Welfare is a big slice of that giant pie.Welfare spending is bulging even though Covid ended years ago. Biden gutted work requirements for able-bodied citizens while expanding benefits.We all want a safety net, but it must be a hand-up, not a handout. As the 1996 welfare reforms with time limits and workfare (thank you Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton) proved, the best way to improve lives and to pull people out of the dependency trap is to get them...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The plain text of Federal law, including the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) (PRWORA), generally prohibits illegal aliens from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits. Title IV of the PRWORA states that it is national policy that “aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs,” and that “[i]t is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by...

President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday night barring illegal immigrants from receiving federally funded benefits. “My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” read the text of Trump’s order. The president noted that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) ostensibly prohibits illegal immigrants from obtaining most taxpayer-funded benefits, but he argued that in the decades since its passage, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress.”

President Trump is reportedly going to sign an executive order on Wednesday night that bans ALL federal taxpayer benefits to illegal aliens residing in the United States. Bill Melugin from FOX News has the scoop. Bill Melugin: Per WH official on background, later tonight, President Trump will sign an executive order designed to terminate any & all federal taxpayer benefits going to illegal aliens. The order will direct every federal agency & department to identify all federally funded programs currently providing any financial benefits to illegal aliens, and “take corrective action”, ensuring that any federal funds to states and localities...

🔥🔥🔥Breaking! A whistleblower came forward early during the first Trump admin. Refugees were flown in at night and given SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS and PASSPORTS and were completely non-vetted. Staffers were then told to push them onto social security disability all while Americans were being denied! This is why there are so many Social Security numbers in use, this has been going on for a very long time. If you have a social security number, it also makes voting a whole lot more easier too! Syrians were even admitted during the Trump 7 country Muslim ban which included Syria. The United...

WASHINGTON — Americans on food stamps may be banned from using them to buy “sugary drinks” and other junk food, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Friday. The newly appointed cabinet official said she will work with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — to prioritize food-stamp benefits for healthy food items. “Will we ever take food out of a hungry child’s mouth? Of course not, this is the United States of America, Rollins told reporters on the White House driveway. “Truly, this program has grown so large, especially...