Trump Administration Presses Democrat States to Share SNAP Data or Face Withholding of Aid

By Darlene Superville and Geoff Mulvihill | The Denver Gazette

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless those states provide information about those receiving the assistance.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of aid recipients. She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia previously sued over the request for information, which was initially made in February. A San Francisco-based federal judge has barred the administration, at least for now, from collecting the information from those states.

The federal government last week sent the states a letter saying that it was time to comply, as other states have, but the parties all agreed to give the states until Dec. 8 to respond.

Administration says data is needed to spot fraud

About 42 million lower-income Americans, or 1 in 8, rely on SNAP to help buy groceries. The average monthly benefit is about $190 per person, or a little over $6 a day.

Rollins has cited information provided by the 28 other states — those with Republican governors plus North Carolina, saying it shows that 186,000 deceased people are receiving SNAP benefits and that 500,000 are getting benefits more than once.

“We asked for all the states for the first time to turn over their data to the federal government to let the USDA partner with them to root out this fraud, to make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them,” Rollins said, “but also to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected.”

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