Attorney General William Tong joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s effort to require states to share personal data of individuals who have received or applied for nutrition assistance.
The lawsuit cites concerns about the “chilling effect” it could have on participation in a program to help low-income families.
States must provide the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with information on beneficiaries and applicants of the last five years by Wednesday. USDA has indicated it could withhold funds that help states administer SNAP if they don’t comply.
Connecticut gets about $79 million a year to help run the program.
In May, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service informed state officials that they would need to provide records to identify enrollees and applicants from the beginning of 2020 until present day by July 30. That information includes, but isn’t limited to, names, dates of birth, personal addresses and Social Security numbers. If they don’t send that information, the guidance notes that could “trigger noncompliance procedures,” which includes the withholding of funds.
The request is part of a wide-ranging effort to collect data from all state programs that receive federal funding and to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order. According to USDA guidance, receiving such information will combat “bureaucratic duplication and inefficiency” and help detect fraud.
At the West End Farmers Market on Tuesday afternoon in Hartford, Emma Frost, who was using SNAP to shop, said the move by the Trump Administration worries her.
“Of course it concerns me if he’s using it to harm innocent people, to tear apart families, to take people who are just trying to get by on food stamps,” she said. “No, I don’t think that it’s right.”
Tong joined Democratic attorneys general in 20 other states plus the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed Monday, alleging the demand is unconstitutional and violates federal privacy laws. The lawsuit asks the federal court in California to block the administration from conditioning funding on whether states provide SNAP data.
In a statement, Tong said it was unclear why USDA is collecting information and worried about possible misuse. The lawsuit points to additional data collection across the federal government, warning the latest push could be used to help carry out the president’s mass deportation efforts.
“The USDA’s actions are an unprecedented, illegal threat to the privacy of families here in Connecticut and across the country,” Tong said. “By law, Connecticut cannot disclose personally identifying SNAP data unless under very specific and strict circumstances. In this instance, none of those limited circumstances exist. No one knows why this data is being collected, who would be allowed to see it, or if it would even be stored correctly. This is simply yet another attempted illegal power grab by this administration, and we will not bow down to these baseless and reckless demands.”
Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves, whose agency administers SNAP in Connecticut, said that “demanding access to sensitive personal information without transparency and safeguard is alarming.”
A USDA spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit lays out the “chilling effect” data collection could have on SNAP and the people who access it across the country. One of the ways it could specifically affect Connecticut and some of the other plaintiff states is through the free and reduced-cost school meals program. Students who receive SNAP benefits automatically qualify for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program.
Advocates in Connecticut also fear that sharing personal and sensitive information with the federal government will discourage eligible individuals and families from seeking the assistance they need.
“My concern is anything that disincentivizes people from signing up for SNAP, anything that makes it harder for people, anything that would give somebody pause if they qualify for SNAP benefits,” Jason Jakubowski, president and CEO of CT Foodshare, told The Connecticut Mirror. “Our belief at CT Foodshare is if you legally qualify for SNAP benefits, you absolutely should be getting SNAP benefits, and anytime you put up a roadblock or impediment, it means fewer people receiving benefits or able to shop for meals at the grocery store, and ultimately it leads to increased hunger in the community.”
Those concerns were echoed in the lawsuit, particularly around what it could mean for individuals who qualify regardless of their immigration status.
“The mere prospect that SNAP [personally identifiable information] may get shared with other federal agencies, such as DOGE or DHS, for surveillance or broad-based immigration enforcement purposes will discourage individuals from participating in nutrition programs for which they are eligible and authorized to participate. This chilling effect will affect citizens, individuals who are not (or should not be) at risk of deportation, such as green card holders, and mixed-immigration status families with U.S. citizen children,” the lawsuit reads.
While it didn’t specify the exact timeline for Connecticut, the lawsuit noted that it would take months for some of the plaintiff states to be able to compile all of the data requested by USDA.
A couple of months ago, Connecticut was informed by its EBT processing service vendor, Conduent Inc., that federal officials requested the SNAP data. The lawsuit noted Conduent didn’t share confidential information with either USDA or the Department of Government Efficiency based on the agreement it has with the states it works with.
Noncompliance could affect the funding that Connecticut and other states receive to help operate nutrition assistance. Connecticut had about $157 million in SNAP administrative costs for fiscal year 2024, and half was reimbursed by the feds.
The federal government and states currently split the administrative costs to run SNAP evenly, though based on recent legislation, states will take on more of that expense in the next couple of years.
More than 40 million Americans received food stamps last year. In Connecticut that same year, nearly 400,000 people, or 1 in 9 state residents, got those benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More than half of the recipients in the state are in families with children. In 2024, Connecticut received a total of $885 million in SNAP benefits.
The SNAP program will undergo major changes in the next few years for both beneficiaries and the states that administer the federally funded program following the passage of Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
The bill will implement stricter work requirements from some SNAP recipients and require them to work, train or volunteer for at least 80 hours a month. It will raise the age limit for able-bodied adults without dependents from 54 to 64. It will apply to able-bodied adults who have children 14 and older. The bill lowered the age of a dependent, which is currently under age 18.
About 69% of Connecticut households on SNAP already have at least one 18- to 55-year-old member working, according to DSS.
States may also need to pick up some of the costs associated with SNAP benefits for the first time in the nutrition program’s history. The federal government has always paid 100% of the benefits and equally shared the administrative costs with states.
Starting in fiscal year 2028 at the earliest, states will need to keep their payment error rate below 6% in order for the feds to keep paying for all costs associated with SNAP benefits. Error rates factor in overpayments and underpayments to enrollees. Connecticut’s payment error rate was about 10% in 2024.
But advocates feel more confident about how Connecticut is handling changes around nutrition assistance and other federally funded programs compared to other states.
“I think we are fortunate we are here in Connecticut, and we have a governor and legislature committed to these programs,” Jakubowski of CT Foodshare said. “It breaks my heart when I look at some other governments across the union where they quite frankly shrug their shoulders.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
