Overview

• The USDA’s July 9 directive requires states to submit detailed information on all SNAP participants since 2020, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, residential and mailing addresses and transaction histories.
• On July 28, California and New York led a coalition of 20 states in suing the USDA in federal court to halt the data request as an unlawful overreach of executive authority.
• USDA officials warned state SNAP directors that missing the submission deadline could trigger noncompliance actions, such as withholding billions of dollars in administrative funding.
• Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defends the demand as necessary to detect waste, fraud and inefficiency by giving the department real-time access to program data.
• Legal and privacy advocates argue the sweeping data grab will erode public trust, deter vulnerable families from enrolling in SNAP and follows similar controversies over IRS and Medicaid data sharing.