PHOENIX — A judge issued an order Wednesday blocking the federal government from obtaining the personal information of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced.
The order was the result of a multistate lawsuit filed in July in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) threatening states with funding cuts if the information was not shared in May.
That request was the result of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that called for the USDA to make sure that the federal government would have full access to data from any state agencies that receive federal funding, such as SNAP, which provides billions of dollars for food assistance for families across the nation.
“Donald Trump’s illegal demand that states hand over sensitive data about families who rely on food assistance is an outrageous abuse of power and I am proud to have secured a court order preventing it,” Mayes said in a press release Wednesday. “My office will continue to fight to protect Arizonans’ privacy and ensure that federal agencies follow the law.”
What personal information about SNAP recipients was the USDA asking for?
To comply with the executive order, USDA asked state agencies to submit names, birth dates, personal addresses and Social Security numbers of SNAP recipients, along with records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020, showing the monetary value of SNAP benefits each recipient had received.
The department said this information would be used to verify the eligibility of SNAP recipients and to make sure the program was not being abused.
July’s lawsuit called for the request to be ruled unlawful, as the lawsuit alleged it violated multiple federal privacy laws, exceeded the USDA’s statutory authority and violated the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause.
The multistate coalition, consisting of 22 states and Washington D.C., filed for a stay on the order or a preliminary injunction in August and a federal judge issued the injunction Wednesday.
What is SNAP?
SNAP was created in 1964 by the Food Stamp Act and exists as a federally funded program run by state agencies.
In Arizona, SNAP is operated by the Department of Economic Security and helps about 900,000 people afford food.
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