WASHINGTON — The President Donald Trump administration says it will withhold money used to help administer SNAP benefits in New York and 20 other states, unless the states provide information about the people getting food aid.
The U.S. Agriculture Secretary said on Tuesday that the states are refusing to give the names and immigration status of aid recipients. After the secretary’s remarks, a USDA spokesperson clarified that the administration is targeting the administrative funds, not the benefits people receive directly.
SNAP administrative funds cover the costs of running the program, such as staff training, certification, and oversight. The federal government funds all SNAP benefits but it shares the administrative costs with the states. That’s separate from the benefits themselves, which are fully federally funded.
In the six-county region around Rochester, over 135,000 people rely on SNAP for food assistance. In Monroe County, one in seven people receive SNAP. As News10NBC has covered, the federal government shutdown disrupted SNAP benefits but things have returned to normal since the government reopened.
The Agriculture Secretary says states need to share data to root out fraud in the program. New York and other Democrat-led states have sued to block the requirement, saying they verify eligibility for all SNAP beneficiaries and never share large amounts of sensitive data with the federal government.
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