The Trump administration indicated Tuesday that it will begin withholding SNAP Benefits from recipients in most Democratic-led states begin next week after those states refused to provide the Agriculture Department with data including recipient names and immigration statuses.
Agriculture Secretary Brock Rollins said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that 29 Republican-led states had complied, but 21 States, including California, New York and Minnesota, declined to provide the data that was requested in February. Rollins said her department requested the information “to root out…fraud.”
“So, starting next week, we have begun and will begin to stop the transfer of federal funds to those states, until they comply, tell us, and allow us to partner with them to eliminate this fraud and protect American taxpayers,” Rollins said at the White House meeting.
Nearly 42 million people in the United States receive food assistance benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
In response to Rollins’ comments on Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said He said on X: “Real question: Why is the Trump administration so insistent on people being hungry?”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called Rollins’ statements a move to “punish…political rivals.”
“It is ironic that the Trump administration is once again trying to withhold SNAP funding over data sharing after a court clearly blocked them from doing so,” Ellison said in a statement.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia sued the administration to block the data requirements this year. Prosecutors argued that the request was part of a campaign by the Trump administration “to collect Americans’ sensitive personal data and misuse that data for unauthorized purposes,” citing agreements between the IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services to share data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Federal judge in San Francisco He issued a preliminary order In October, he blocked the administration from withholding federal SNAP funding from states that refuse to provide the required data. The Department of Agriculture can appeal the decision and has until Dec. 15 to decide whether to do so, but the judge has already rejected a request from the department to temporarily halt the injunction if it decides to appeal.
SNAP funding expired last month during the longest government shutdown on record, forcing many recipients to go without food. The shutdown ended on November 12, essentially ending a legal challenge that had reached the Supreme Court over whether the administration’s attempt to withhold funding was legal.
Shannon Pettybes Contribute.