WASHINGTON (NBC) —The Trump administration indicated Tuesday that it will begin withholding SNAP benefits from recipients in most Democratic-led states starting next week after those states refused to provide the Agriculture Department with data including recipients’ names and immigration statuses.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that 29 Republican-led states have complied but that 21 states, including California, New York and Minnesota, have refused to provide the data, which was requested in February. Rollins has said her department requested the info to “root out … fraud.”
“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 allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer,” Rollins said at the White House meeting.
Close to 42 million people in the U.S. receive benefits for food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Reacting to Rollins’ remarks Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on X: “Genuine question: Why is the Trump Administration so hellbent on people going hungry?”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called Rollins’ remarks a move to “punish … political rivals.”
“It’s nothing short of ridiculous that the Trump administration is once again trying to withhold SNAP funding over data sharing after a court clearly barred them from doing so,” Ellison said in a statement.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia sued the administration to block the data requirement this year. The attorneys general argued that the demand was part of a campaign by the Trump administration to “amass Americans’ sensitive, personal data and misuse that data for unauthorized purposes,” citing agreements by the IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services to share data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction in October blocking the administration from withholding federal SNAP funding from states that refuse to provide the requested data. The Agriculture Department can appeal the decision and has until Dec. 15 to decide whether to do so — but the judge has already denied a request from the administration to pause the injunction should it decide to appeal.
Funding for SNAP lapsed last month during the longest-ever government shutdown, forcing many recipients to go without food. The shutdown ended Nov. 12, essentially ending a legal challenge that reached the Supreme Court over whether the administration’s attempt to withhold funding was lawful.
By RAQUEL CORONELL URIBE/NBC News
