USDA sued over food stamp data demands from states : NPR

The demand for sensitive data on millions of USDA food stamp recipients violates federal privacy laws, according to a new lawsuit filed Thursday. Meanwhile, some states are preparing to follow unprecedented demands that can be used to achieve Trump administration priorities, such as immigration enforcement.

In new guidance issued earlier this month, the USDA stated that data must be passed on to the agency through a “third-party payment processor” that includes “name, date of birth, Social Security number, address of recipient of the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, or “return to more than five years ago” and “including name, date of birth, Social Security number, and address.” Over 40 million people rely on support each month.

This guidance warns that data is failing to make available. It has meaning Legal measures and withholding funds.

SNAP recipients, including some university students enrolled in the program, as well as Privacy Group and National Hanger Group, Sued in federal court In Washington, D.C., a federal judge is asking agencies to stop collecting data until they comply with protocols outlined in federal law.

The plaintiffs say the USDA has not followed the proper procedures for this type of data collection effort. This includes providing public notices, exploring public comments, and publishing privacy impact assessments in advance. For example, privacy laws require specific public notices known as the system of record notifications.

The USDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, an unnamed spokesman using a USDA press email account told NPR that it was “to remove data silos” and that it was to gain the support of President Trump. Presidential Order of March 20th The title is “Stop waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.” The executive order requires free access to comprehensive data from all state programs that receive federal funding, including “third-party databases.”

The same email states that the agency’s legal advisory office “determines whether this new data sharing guidance falls under an existing published record notification system or whether it is necessary to have its own published notice.”

“All personally identifiable information will comply with all privacy laws and regulations and comply with responsible data processing requirements,” the email said.

The Trump administration is actively collecting data

The legal battle over snap data comes on the same day that House Republicans passed a massive bill that includes deep cuts in snaps. Government Efficiency Ad Hoc Bureau is consolidating data from the entire federal government for purposes including Immigration enforcement Identify fraud. Doge’s data collection efforts are being contested in several legal cases.

“This case is part of a pattern seen by the Trump administration, an agency that reaches out and grabs American personal data,” said Madeline Wiseman, a lawyer with the National Student Legal Defense Network, who represents plaintiffs along with lawyers for protecting the Democracy, the Center for Electronic Privacy Information and the National Center for Legal Justice.

“We don’t know what the government is doing, who has access to this data, what purposes, what purposes the USDA will keep it inside, or whether the USDA will share it with other federal agencies for other purposes,” Wiseman said.

Privacy experts warn that if the federal government ignores privacy protections and forces states and private contractors to take over sensitive data currently held by states alone, it will have a major impact.

A former USDA official who worked in the Food and Nutrition Services, an agency that manages SNAP, highlighted the unprecedented nature of government demands.

“FNS didn’t have a national list of everyone receiving the Snap perks, let alone detailed personal information such as addresses and income,” said a former employee who asked to remain anonymous as he was not allowed to speak to the media at his current job.

Officials said during the Biden administration that the agency “deliberately designed computer systems to avoid collecting or storing individuals about people participating in nutrition programs such as SNAP and WIC, and believes there is too much risk to participants’ privacy and data security.”

Privacy supporters are worried that the Trump administration’s data collection efforts could be used to enforce immigrants.

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Response depends on the state

meanwhile Some states It shows they are weighing the legality of USDA data demand, other states with Republican governors told NPR they intend to follow.

Iowa will “work with vendors to meet federal requests,” Alex Murphy, communications director for the state Department of Health and Human Services, told NPR in an email.

Ohio is “complying with requests,” wrote Tom Betty, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Office, in an email. “It’s a fair amount of data and it takes time to compile,” Betti added that the data will be shared through Conduent, the Ohio EBT payment processor.

Alaska Beacon It has been reported Alex Hausman, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Health, said the state “complies with the federal government’s requirements to share information on demand.” Huseman does not share the same statement as NPR.

Luke El Singa, chairman of the Iowa Hanger Coalition board, told NPR that hunger advocates have already been overwhelmed by the proposal of snaps at a time when food pantry faces historic demands in the state, and are also concerned about the national impact of sharing sensitive data from snap recipients.

“I’m really worried that this can be used to target immigrant families,” Elzinga told NPR. He said state agencies are working hard to make immigrant households eligible for SNAP benefits feel confident in their application, but the new guidance would change that.

Immigrants who lack legal status in the country are not eligible to receive SNAP and are only eligible for several categories of legal immigration, but parents can register children of US citizens regardless of their immigration status. The Trump administration has revoked legal protections for certain categories of immigration, including some groups with temporary protected status. This means that some SNAP recipients are subject to deportation, so having access to information about their recipient’s addresses could be useful to federal authorities.

“If you’re trying to design a public benefit program that supports the most vulnerable people and ensures no one in our country gets hungry, this is clearly not the way to do that,” said Amairfieldsmeier, who specializes in the intersection of Harvard’s Ash Governance and Innovation, a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Ash Governance and Innovation, which specializes in the intersection of former senior policy advisory and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“But if you’re trying to integrate critical support into machines that hunt immigrants, destroy families and deport people without legitimate procedures, this is exactly how to do that.”

The state and its vendors hold sensitive data on many federally funded programs and benefits, including unemployment insurance, Medicaid and special education. The attorneys behind the lawsuit warn that USDA’s demand for SNAP data could set a dangerous precedent.

Nicole Schneidman, a technology policy strategist at Protect Democracy and one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit, said the state could become “a new battlefield in the fight against Doge’s excesses on American lives.” “This demand places the winners in which states have to break the law and risk betraying their citizens or losing essential funds.”

After Conduent, the Maryland payment processor, informed the state Department of Human Services about USDA’s SNAP data request, the state agency sent letters to vendors, grantees, contractors and community partners asking them to forward federal requests for data they may receive.

The letter states that personally identifiable and protected health information must be “not shared, disclosed or accessed in accordance with contracts and applicable laws.”

Do you have any information you would like to share about snaps, access to government databases, and immigration? Reach out to these authors through encrypted communication over signals. Stephen Fowler It is located at stphnfwlr.25 Jude Joff Brock It is located in Judejb.10. Use unprocessed devices.