Pennsylvania joins legal fight over Trump Administration demand for food-stamp data

This story originally appeared on WESA.

Pennsylvania has been added to a lawsuit over the Trump Administration’s demand for personal information on food-stamp recipients. State officials hope the legal maneuver will provide breathing room in an increasingly heated dispute, one that could cost Pennsylvania half a billion dollars each year.

At issue is a demand by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for five years’ worth of data — including Social Security numbers and other information — about Pennsylvanians who receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In a letter citing privacy concerns, the state declined to hand over the records for a Sept. 19 deadline. Court records show that on the next day, USDA “disallowed” $115 million of funds earmarked for the state’s food-assistance program.

That would cut roughly 10 percent of the federal reimbursement Pennsylvania receives every three months. The USDA threatened similar cuts each quarter, until the state hands over data on its 2 million food-stamp recipients.

“Pennsylvania cannot replace such a significant amount of funding, and as a result would be unable to operate the SNAP program as required if this threat were carried out,” wrote attorneys for Shapiro’s office in a Wednesday court filing.

The filing sought to join a suit filed this past summer by 21 other states who were also targeted by the USDA. Last week a federal judge in California, Maxine Chesney, granted a motion temporarily blocking the USDA from seeking the SNAP data from states involved.

That did little for Pennsylvania, which did not join the suit when it was filed in July. And while Chesney allowed the state to do so Wednesday, her previous order does not shield Pennsylvania quite yet.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 30. Chesney is expected to rule by then, if not before, on whether her freeze applies to the data requested in Pennsylvania.

State officials have so far kept quiet about why Pennsylvania was slow to join the lawsuit. The state Department of Human Services said late Wednesday that Pennsylvania has yet to appeal the USDA penalty letter, but “is working with the Governor’s Office to evaluate next steps.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro has sued federal authorities more than a dozen times since Donald Trump returned to the White House. But he has said in the past that he doesn’t use legal action as a first option.

And in its brief filed Wednesday, the state argues that it tried to resolve the dispute, only to find federal officials unwilling to compromise.

“Pennsylvania officials sought … to arrive at a solution that would address its privacy and other concerns while still enabling it to comply with USDA’s request,” the filing says.

State lawyers said that Pennsylvania agreed to share the requested information if the Department of Agriculture ensured it wouldn’t be shared with other agencies. State officials have said they worried that disseminating the information could erode privacy protections for food-stamp recipients: Some critics, meanwhile, worry the data could be used to prosecute undocumented immigrants who share a household with beneficiaries.

But the state contends that the USDA refused to make such a guarantee, leaving the state to reject the request.

“Whatever injuries USDA may now claim to its lawful policy objectives are self-imposed,” the state argued in the filing.

Pennsylvania also argued in the filing that a nearly three-month-old state budget impasse would magnify the damage of a federal cut.

The state Department of Human Services spends $241 million each year for “administrative expenses,” according to the lawsuit. Allowing USDA to withhold federal funds would “significantly damage” Pennsylvania’s ability to enroll people on food benefits.

“That would be true under any circumstances,” it claims, “but is especially true now