More than a dozen blue states have sued USDA, arguing that its request for sensitive data on federal food aid participants is unlawful.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday she plans to withhold federal funding from states that refuse to comply with USDA’s request for data about food aid recipients.
“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,” Rollins said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, specifically calling out California, New York and Minnesota and other “blue states.”
More than a dozen states have sued the administration to halt the Trump administration’s demands to turn over sensitive data about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants, arguing that the data request is illegal and that the information gathered would likely be used for Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. The states won a preliminary injunction in October to halt the data request, but it’s not clear how the threat Rollins made Tuesday will impact the ongoing litigation.
USDA spokesperson Alec Varsamis confirmed Rollins’ intentions, but did not clarify how the move will affect the lawsuit.
“We have 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,” Varsamis said in a statement. “USDA established a SNAP integrity team to analyze not only data provided by states, but to scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud.”