Press Release: Gov. Evers Delivers Radio Address, Highlights Efforts to Support FoodShare, Save Wisconsinites Millions of Dollars in Penalty Fees Paid to the Trump Administration

State of Wisconsin sent this bulletin at 07/24/2026 10:30 AM CDT
Office of Governor Tony Evers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 24, 2026
Contact: GovPress@wisconsin.gov 
 
Gov. Evers Delivers Radio Address, Highlights Efforts to Support FoodShare, Save Wisconsinites Millions of Dollars in Penalty Fees Paid to the Trump Administration
ICYMI: Wisconsin just one of nine states that will avoid new federal penalty fees next year thanks to Evers Administration efforts to support FoodShare, saving Wisconsin taxpayers from paying as much as $205.5 million in fees
Audio File of Radio Address.

MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today delivered his weekly radio address and highlighted that, thanks to efforts of the Evers Administration, Wisconsin taxpayers next year will avoid paying as much as $205.5 million in new federal penalty fees imposed by President Donald J.Trump and Republicans in Congress through the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Republicans passed last year. Just months after Gov. Evers was finally able to secure support for the state’s FoodShare program, last month, Gov. Evers announced Wisconsin will be among just nine states that will avoid having to pay exorbitant new penalty fees to the Trump Administration in 2027. Every Republican member of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation voted to pass the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ last year, forcing over 270,000 Wisconsinites to lose their health insurance, tens of thousands of Wisconsinites to lose access to basic food necessities, and imposing hundreds of millions of dollars in new potential penalty fees on states.

Congressional Republicans, last summer, passed President Trump’s signature legislation, the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ cutting essential Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food assistance, known as FoodShare in Wisconsin, by about 20 percent by increasing red-tape requirements, gutting healthy and nutritional food education programs, and forcing states to potentially face hundreds of millions of dollars in new penalty fees to the Trump Administration. Under the ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ states would have to pay a sliding scale of penalty fees to the federal government if payment ‘error rates’ in the SNAP program exceed certain thresholds, despite the fact that error rates do not measure fraud, are based on unintentional mistakes states do not control, and no state will ever have a zero-percent error rate. In Wisconsin, for example, new penalty fees Republicans created under the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ could have forced taxpayers to pay an additional over $200 million every year in penalty fees to the Trump Administration, on top of the more than $284 million Wisconsin taxpayers are already estimated to pay in future budgets.

Gov. Evers last summer began raising alarms about the impacts of Republicans’ ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ which the Evers Administration estimates will cost Wisconsinites over $284 million in future state budgets. At the time, which was shortly after the passage of Wisconsin’s 2025-27 Biennial Budget, the governor also announced the Republican legislation would cost an initial nearly $70 million up front in order to implement new red-tape requirements, hire more quality control staff across the state, and help pay for new costs the federal government is shifting onto state taxpayers.

The governor spent months working to secure the nearly $70 million from the Republican-controlled Legislature in order to prevent taxpayers from having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalty fees to the Trump Administration. Earlier this year, Gov. Evers signed a bipartisan bill, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 116, that secured over $72 million in additional state resources for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to support the FoodShare program and keep FoodShare error rates low to avoid federal penalty fees.

While the efforts by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration have prevented Wisconsin taxpayers from having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalty fees in 2027, there is no guarantee that Wisconsin taxpayers will not be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in the future. If under future administrations Wisconsin’s SNAP payment error rate exceeds six percent, Wisconsin taxpayers will have to pay up to an estimated $205 million in federal penalty fees, on top of the additional $284 million Wisconsin taxpayers are expected to have to pay in future budgets because of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’

A transcript of the governor’s radio address is below.

Hey there, folks. Governor Tony Evers here.

Food insecurity continues to be an issue that far too many families face, especially as President Trump’s reckless policies continue to drive up prices at the grocery store checkout.

And here in Wisconsin, about 700,000 Wisconsinites, including nearly 270,000 kids, depend on food assistance, known as SNAP or FoodShare in our state, to afford basic groceries and stay fed.

Unfortunately, last summer, Congressional Republicans passed President Trump’s so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ cutting essential food assistance by about 20 percent by increasing red-tape requirements and gutting healthy and nutritional food education programs.

As a result, the latest reporting shows that more than 770,000 kids across our country are no longer receiving the basic food assistance they need due to these changes. That is shameful. 

 

Not only that, but with these Republican changes, states across the country are now facing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in new penalty fees to be paid to the Trump Administration.

That’s why we worked hard to secure more state support for Wisconsin’s FoodShare program to help keep our tax dollars here in Wisconsin instead of paying exorbitant penalty fees to Washington. 

 

Thanks to our work, Wisconsin is one of just nine states in the nation that won't have to pay penalty fees to the Trump Administration in 2027.

All told, Wisconsin taxpayers will avoid paying $205 million in 2027.

Now, that’s great news, but what this really means is that our FoodShare program is working just like it’s supposed to, and Wisconsinites are getting the help they need when they need it.

My administration and I will continue working to make sure FoodShare remains a strong program.

Thank you. 
 
An online version of this release is available here.
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