The Trump administration is proposing a nationwide security upgrade for food-assistance cards, requiring states to issue chip-enabled Electronic Benefit Transfer cards and retailers that accept SNAP to support tap-to-pay transactions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed rule is intended to combat card skimming, in which criminals capture card information at payment terminals and drain recipients’ accounts. Most SNAP cards still rely on magnetic stripes, which are more vulnerable to theft than chip or contactless payment technology. Fewer than one-third of states have switched to chip cards or are in the process of doing so, according to the USDA. The department estimates the proposed changes could prevent at least $1.5 billion in stolen benefits over the next decade. The scale of the losses is disputed across estimates and studies. A January projection by the USDA’s inspector general put SNAP theft at as much as $233 million from 2025 through 2026, largely because of skimming. A separate investigation, using data from the benefits-checking app Propel, calculated that $470 million was stolen electronically from SNAP recipients in 2025. For recipients, theft can mean losing grocery money with little prospect of getting it back: most states do not replace stolen benefits. A Propel survey found that some people respond by skipping meals or borrowing money to buy food. The security upgrade will also carry a bill. The Government Accountability Office has found chip-enabled cards cost about 10 times as much to produce as magnetic-stripe cards, adding to state agencies’ budget pressures. The USDA said states had access to administrative funds to address the problem but few acted, while the proposed rule invites state input on the costs. The public has 60 days to comment. The USDA is considering giving states two years after publication of a final rule to implement the changes and is seeking feedback on whether that timeline is workable. The department said the proposal had been in development for nearly four years. SNAP has also been a focus of federal fraud investigations. The Justice Department said last week that its fraud division, working with the USDA and the department’s inspector general, helped uncover nearly $42 million in schemes involving food benefits, including identity theft and retailers illegally exchanging benefits for cash.