Kentucky could see pause in SNAP benefits unless state complies with USDA request

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentuckians who rely on SNAP may not get their benefits starting next week unless the state complies with a federal request.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking states to provide the names and immigration status of people receiving benefits.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's office said the state was part of a lawsuit in July challenging the demand, which was blocked by a judge in September.

However, the USDA made another request for the data in November, giving states a Dec. 8 deadline to respond.

Right now, Beshear's office said it has not received a notification that funding could be withheld.

It's not clear whether Kentucky has given the USDA the information it asked for, or if it intends to. The governor's office has not yet responded to a request for clarification.

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.

This comes as President Donald Trump's administration warned Tuesday that it will withhold money for administering SNAP food aid in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless those states provide the information.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the states' cooperation is needed to root out fraud in the program, the Associated Press reported. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement, saying they verify eligibility for SNAP beneficiaries and that they never share large swaths of sensitive program data with the federal government.

States and the federal government split the cost of running SNAP, with the federal government paying the full cost of benefits. After Rollins’ remarks, a USDA spokesperson later explained that the agency is targeting the administrative funds — not the benefits people receive.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia previously sued over the request for information, which was initially made in February. A San Francisco-based federal judge has barred the administration, at least for now, from collecting the information from those states.

The federal government last week sent the states a letter urging compliance, but the parties all agreed to give the states until Dec. 8 to respond.

Federal law allows the USDA to withhold some of the money states receive for administering SNAP if there's a pattern of noncompliance with certain federal regulations.

But “there’s never authority to withhold the SNAP benefits and, in this case, there’s also no authority to withhold the administrative funding,” said David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University who has studied the food aid program for decades.

This also comes just weeks after SNAP recipients began seeing their benefits restored after the longest U.S. government shutdown ever came to an end.

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