The Agriculture Department said on Tuesday that it would withhold federal funding for food stamps in more than 20 Democratic-led states that have so far refused to provide the Trump administration with sensitive personal data about recipients.
In May, the administration asked states for information about millions of people who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Twenty-eight largely Republican-controlled states have complied, the agency has said.
But a coalition of Democratic-controlled states and the District of Columbia refused, arguing in court that the federal government’s demand violated privacy law.
“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,” Brooke L. Rollins, the agriculture secretary, said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
While the federal government funds benefits for some 42 million people enrolled in the program, states administer SNAP. The Agriculture Department’s request for beneficiary data included sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers, birth dates and home addresses.
The coalition of Democratic states have argued that the data could be used for other policies not related to administering food stamps, including immigration enforcement. The Trump administration contends that the information will be used to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
The latest threat to SNAP funding came after weeks of whiplash and confusion over the status of benefits during the government shutdown, and amid drastic alterations to the food program that were included in President Trump’s signature policy law.
The Agriculture Department did not respond to questions about how and when benefits would be affected, but said in a statement that it had “sent Democrat states yet another request for data, and if they fail to comply, they will be provided with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds.”
Should the agency withhold funding from states that have not yet handed over data, more than 20 million beneficiaries could be affected.
It was also not clear how the warning intersected with ongoing litigation over the data request.
In September, a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration from “disallowing SNAP funding.” In October, the Democratic states won another victory when the same judge barred the federal government from punishing states for not providing data.
The legal fight stalled during the government shutdown. According to a recent status report, the federal government has until mid-December to appeal the injunction.
The Agriculture Department sent another letter requesting data in late November and agreed to give states until Dec. 8 to respond.
Linda Qiu is a Times reporter who specializes in fact-checking statements made by politicians and public figures. She has been reporting and fact-checking public figures for nearly a decade.
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