Trump administration to withhold some SNAP funding until Minnesota turns over data

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday that her department will soon withhold funding that helps administer SNAP benefits in states run by Democrats, including Minnesota.

Those states have refused to share participants’ personal data with the federal government. Roughly 440,000 Minnesotans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.

Gov. Tim Walz and other Minnesota officials have so far resisted the Trump Administration’s push to collect sensitive data on the state’s residents, including names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers of SNAP participants. The Trump administration says it wants the data to help stop waste, fraud and abuse.

Most states with a Republican governor have already turned over their SNAP data. Democratic-led states have largely refused, with officials saying it would be illegal and that they worry the administration will use the some of that data to target individuals for deportation.

The move comes as the federal government has increased scrutiny on Minnesota this week, with other agencies launching investigations into fraud claims or threatening to withhold transportation funds. Rollins told President Trump in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the USDA “will begin to stop moving federal funds” into Minnesota and other states next week “until they comply.”

“NO DATA, NO MONEY — it’s that simple,“ Rollins later posted to social media. ”If a state won’t share data on criminal use of SNAP benefits, it won’t get a dollar of federal SNAP administrative funding. Let’s see which states stand for accountability and which are just protecting their bribery schemes."

But it appears that the federal government, for now, is limited in what money it can withhold. A judge recently temporarily blocked the federal government from “disallowing funding” to states such as Minnesota that didn’t share data and sued over the federal government’s request.

The USDA, the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, Gov. Tim Walz’s office and the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families, which administers SNAP in Minnesota, did not or could not confirm whether Rollins’ threat was isolated to administrative costs and not benefits themselves.

In a statement, a Walz spokeswoman said the governor “wishes President Trump would be a president for all Americans rather than taking out his political vendettas on the people who need these benefits the most.”

“Whether it’s threatening highway funding or food assistance, the President is making malicious decisions that will raise prices and harm families,” said spokeswoman Claire Lancaster, referencing another Trump administration threat this week over transportation funding.

Attorney General Keith Ellison, in a statement, called the Trump administration’s threat “nothing short of ridiculous” after the judge’s injunction.

“My office and I are exploring all of our options to halt this blatantly unlawful action and ensure hungry families in Minnesota continue to get the food they need,” he said.

“Her disregard for the law and willingness to lie through her teeth comes from the very top – the Trump administration is as corrupt as it is lawless, and I will not sit silently as she carries out the president’s campaign against Americans struggling to afford food in part because of this president’s tariffs and disastrous economic policies," Craig said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the states’ lawsuit continues to wind its way through the courts. The federal government again demanded the data in a letter to states last week.

The letter also included a more detailed list of the requested information, including recipients’ immigration status, assets, SNAP/EBT debit card numbers and whether members of a household are homeless.

States are expected to respond by midday Monday, according to a court filing.