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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Trump administration backs off effort to collect data on food stamp recipients
The Agriculture Department released guidance outlining the federal government's intentions in May. The document referred to states and territories, which administer the program independently, as 'a SNAP information silo' and directed state agencies to begin providing personal data on recipients under an executive order that President Donald Trump signed in March. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The data the department requested from state administrators includes identifying details on recipients including home addresses, federal tax returns and Social Security numbers. Advertisement A group of individuals and nonprofits quickly filed a lawsuit challenging the policy on personal privacy grounds, represented by lawyers from public interest groups including the Protect Democracy Project and the National Student Legal Defense Network. The lawsuit raised broader concerns about the data-collection efforts driven by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency team he has left in place, which have spawned multiple legal challenges. At the same time the Agriculture Department was canvassing data from states, Musk's team was also contacting third-party companies that process bank transactions tied to the benefits in an attempt to build out the database, according to emails first reported by NPR. Advertisement Musk's team has in recent months taken steps to merge and centralize sensitive data maintained by multiple federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education and others. The Trump administration has also quietly enlisted Palantir, a data analysis firm, to organize and interrogate that data in order to piece together holistic portraits of individual Americans based on the totality of the information stored on them across the federal government. The lawsuit against the Agriculture Department argued that the demand for up-to-date information on SNAP recipients fit the larger pattern, and promised to put tens of millions of people who rely on the program into a system where they could be scrutinized over eligibility requirements. In a filing, the groups suing noted that Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa and Ohio had already started producing data and that all other states were already facing pressure to comply in violation of federal privacy laws. 'This case concerns the executive branch's attempt to round up the sensitive personal data of tens of millions of economically vulnerable Americans with callous indifference for the mandatory privacy protections enshrined in federal law,' the groups wrote. The concerns raised in the lawsuit have been compounded by proposals by Republicans in Congress to dramatically shrink SNAP and other federal anti-poverty programs as part of sweeping cuts that lawmakers have used to justify tax cuts concentrated on the wealthiest Americans. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the provisions of the tax cut bill could result in 1.3 million people losing access to SNAP benefits. Advertisement After the groups suing moved to block the Agriculture Department from implementing the policy, the government said in its filing that it had yet to receive any data and would not proceed until it had taken steps 'to satisfy all necessary legal requirements.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
4 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Trump Administration Backs Off Effort to Collect Data on Food Stamp Recipients
The Trump administration has backed off a demand that states hand over personal information about food stamp recipients in the face of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of public interest groups. An Agriculture Department official said in a sworn statement filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia over the weekend that the agency was pausing its plans, announced last month, to create a database of Americans who receive nutrition benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The move was a rare instance of the Trump administration proceeding cautiously amid litigation, relenting for now before potential intervention by a judge. The Agriculture Department released guidance outlining the federal government's intentions in May. The document referred to states and territories, which administer the program independently, as 'a SNAP information silo' and directed state agencies to begin providing personal data on recipients under an executive order that President Trump signed in March. The data the department would begin compiling from state administrators includes identifying details on recipients like home addresses, federal tax returns and Social Security numbers. A group of individuals and nonprofits quickly filed a lawsuit challenging the policy on personal privacy grounds, represented by lawyers from public interest groups including the Protect Democracy Project and the National Student Legal Defense Network. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
