Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson accused Democratic governors of ‘trying to protect the fraudsters’ by refusing to provide the Trump administration with SNAP recipient data. Ferguson stated that the lack of cooperation from blue states is hindering efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in federally funded benefit programs.

Efforts to Unmask Fraud

Ferguson is helping lead the charge in the Trump administration’s broader effort to unmask and eliminate systemic fraud in government-funded programs. He called out blue-state governors for their refusal to hand over the requested information, including information identifying benefit recipients.

Programs like SNAP, which are administered by states but funded by the federal government, are particularly under the microscope. Ferguson said that the federal government does not have good insight into who actually receives this money, and they have been asking states to work with them to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars are not going to fraudsters.

Vice President JD Vance is leading the administration’s anti-fraud effort, publicly pressing for the same information to determine whether people who are in the country illegally are receiving SNAP benefits in certain states. Ferguson touted the success of the mission to uncover fraud, stating that the probes have yielded indictments and potential prison time for perpetrators as well as uncovered ‘tens of billions of dollars of fraud’ that would have otherwise gone to fraudsters.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.