by WorldTribune Staff, June 30, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
The Trump Administration has filed a series of lawsuits against Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania to force them to hand over data for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants.
The Trump team says the records are needed to audit the Food Stamp programs, ensure eligibility, and prevent fraud.
The Department of Justice said the four states refused to turn over the data to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) so that USDA could ensure that states are properly administering and enforcing their determinations of residents’ eligibility for SNAP, including household benefit levels.
“When USDA requested this data last year, these states and several others refused to comply. Twenty-eight other jurisdictions, however, promptly provided their data. Data received from the compliant 28 states indicate there are billions of dollars per year in SNAP funds going to overpayments and fraud,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
“Faced with this evidence, USDA again requested SNAP applicant data from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota in May. Yet again, these states refused to comply. The states’ ongoing noncompliance creates the likelihood of ongoing, material waste, fraud, and abuse going undetected.”
On June 24, the USDA said the SNAP program’s payment error rate was 10.6% for fiscal year 2025, resulting in $10.1 billion in improper payments nationwide.
“The American people deserve a government that is transparent about how it spends their hard-earned tax dollars,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “These four states are thwarting USDA’s efforts to ensure that the billions of dollars in SNAP benefits they distribute every year are not lost to fraud. It’s unacceptable, suspicious, and it will not stand under this administration.”
“Stopping the rampant theft of taxpayer money demands a whole-of-government response, including strong participation at the state level,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “These states are happy to take hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars—much of which is exploited by fraudsters—but want zero transparency over how those tax dollars are spent. It’s pretty simple: share the data that shows how America’s money is being spent—and stolen—in your state. These lawsuits are required because these states refuse to take the most basic steps to help stop the rampant theft of taxpayer dollars.”
The states insist that turning over the data would constitute a violation of recipients’ right to privacy.
Rosie Lapowsky, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, said in a statement:
“The Shapiro Administration is committed to protecting Pennsylvanians’ private, personal information and has a responsibility to ensure it is not being misused. Governor Josh Shapiro has made fighting public assistance fraud a cornerstone of his career in public service and his Administration has strict guidelines in place to ensure taxpayer money is used for its intended purpose across Commonwealth programs and initiatives – even as the Trump Administration has cut federal funding to protect against fraud.
“This lawsuit is a bad faith effort to avoid a court that has already ruled in the lawsuit brought by the Shapiro Administration that the USDA is not entitled to Pennsylvanians’ private data without first agreeing to data security protocols. By suing Pennsylvania instead of working with us to combat fraud, the Trump Administration is proving once again that they are more interested in dividing Americans and kicking people off SNAP than actually tackling these important issues.”
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families issued the following statement:
“The USDA has already tried to force states to turn over SNAP recipient data, and those efforts have been temporarily blocked in federal court. DCYF continues to meet the USDA’s regular data reporting requirements, which are not impacted by that court order.
“This latest lawsuit appears to be seeking the same information covered by the preliminary injunction already ordered by a federal court. DCYF defers to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office for comment on pending litigation. USDA’s demand for this volume of data is unprecedented, threatens the privacy of millions of families, and ignores long-standing restrictions on the use and redisclosure of SNAP data.”
