The Agriculture Department plans to freeze federal funding for 21 states starting next week as it escalates its crackdown on possible fraud in the food stamp program, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday.

The USDA requested states in February to turn over data about benefit recipients under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that serves nearly 42 million people.

Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday the withholding move would aid the department’s efforts to root out fraud, adding that 29 “red states” complied with the order.

“But 21 states including California, New York and Minnesota — the blue states — continue to say ‘no,’ so as of next week we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply and they tell us and al

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