President Donald Trump's administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless they provide information about those receiving the assistance.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is in the works because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested, such as the names and immigration status of the aid recipients.
She said the cooperation is necessary in order to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement.
About 42 million lower-income Americans, or 1 in 8, rely on SNAP to help buy groceries. The average monthly benefit is about $190 per person, or a little over $6 a day.
The program is not normally in the political spotlight, but it has been this year.
As part of Trump's big tax and policy bill earlier in the year, work requirements are expanding to include people who are ages 55 to 64, homeless people and others.
And amid the recent federal government shutdown, the administration planned not to fund the benefits for November. There was a back-and-forth in the courts about whether they could do so, but then the government reopened and benefits resumed before the final word.
In the meantime, some states scrambled to fund benefits on their own and most increased or accelerated money for food banks.
The recipient records fight predates the attention SNAP received during the shutdown.
The administration initially asked states to provide data in February.
Most Republican-controlled states have already done so. Most Democratic-run ones have gone to court to block the requirement, objecting to being forced to hand over individual records, including immigration status of SNAP participants.
