PENNSYLVANIA —The Trump administration is threatening to withhold Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program money for Pennsylvania and many other states beginning next week unless they surrender detailed SNAP recipient information to the federal government.
The implications of that threat are ominous for millions of Pennsylvanians who need assistance with paying for food. About two million people, or more than 15 percent of the state’s population, receive SNAP benefits enabling them to purchase groceries with an EBT card.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that 21 states and the District of Columbia have failed to provide the sensitive information on SNAP recipients that the administration began requesting in July.
The department has told the states to turn over five years of information that includes “all household group members names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, residential and mailing addresses used or provided, as well as all data records used to determine eligibility or ineligibility.”
The department subsequently released a demand for SNAP applicants’ immigration and citizenship status, as well as education, employment and marital status.
“We asked for all the states for the first time to turn over their data to the federal government to let the USDA partner with them to root out this fraud, to make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them but also to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected,” Rollins said at the Cabinet meeting.
The agriculture department’s own website contradicts Rollins’ rampant fraud assertion, stating “The majority of SNAP benefits are used as intended — to supplement food budgets of eligible families.”
The department’s numbers seem to confirm that statement: For the 2023 fiscal year, there were 261,770 authorized SNAP retailers nationwide. There were 1,980 disqualifications, 1,617 warning letters and 561 fines issued to those retailers.
Examples of retailer fraud include trading benefits for cash and the sale of ineligible items.
Rollins said 29 states have complied with the edict to hand over the information the department has demanded.
“But 21 states, including California, New York and Minnesota — blue states — continue to say no,” she said. “So as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving funds into those states until they comply.”
Pennsylvania is one of the states that have not turned over the data the department demanded.
In October, Gov. Josh Shapiro joined a lawsuit along with other states to restore SNAP benefits during a federal government shutdown The lawsuit, filed against the Trump administration, successfully compelled the federal government to use available contingency funds to pay for November SNAP benefits, which had been suspended.
Shapiro’s office did not immediately return a Patch request for comment on Wednesday.