Tipsheet

DOJ Sues Four States That Refused to Hand Over SNAP Data

Scott McClallen
Scott McClallen  |  June 27, 2026 2:00 PM

The Department of Justice filed lawsuits against Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, seeking injunctions requiring their state agencies that administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to turn over their last five years of SNAP applicant data.  

This comes after those four states refused to turn over the data to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) so that USDA could ensure that states are properly administering and enforcing their determinations of residents’ eligibility for SNAP, including household benefit levels.

When the USDA requested this data last year, these states and several others refused to comply.  

Twenty-eight other jurisdictions, however, promptly provided their data. Data received from the compliant 28 states indicate there are billions of dollars per year in SNAP funds going to overpayments and fraud. 

“The American people deserve a government that is transparent about how it spends their hard-earned tax dollars,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “These four states are thwarting USDA’s efforts to ensure that the billions of dollars in SNAP benefits they distribute every year are not lost to fraud. It’s unacceptable, suspicious, and it will not stand under this Administration.”

Faced with this evidence, USDA again requested SNAP applicant data from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota in May.  

Yet again, these states refused to comply.  

The states’ ongoing noncompliance creates the likelihood of ongoing, material waste, fraud, and abuse going undetected. The USDA released the average payment error rate of 10.62 percent for fiscal year 2025, meaning that there were more than $10 billion in improper payments.

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The USDA said that it found about $3 billion of likely fraud in the states that shared SNAP data.

“For nearly 365 days, several States have shamelessly defied federal law and withheld data to which the U.S. Department of Agriculture is entitled,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. “USDA has worked constructively with the majority of States to ensure criminals, fraudulent activity, and other waste, no longer plague a program meant to serve the most vulnerable households and communities among us. Today, I asked the Acting Attorney General to compel Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan to comply with federal law. If a State misguidedly stands between the federal government and the information needed to protect the generosity of the American taxpayer, the Trump Administration will take them to court.”

For example, Michigan has paid over $4 million in SNAP benefits to people who lived out-of-state since 2024, something it's not supposed to do. 

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the department has charged about 1,000 people with stealing from SNAP, which helps feed about 41 million people nationwide. 

“The Department of Justice is dedicated to combatting waste, fraud, and abuse in federal benefits programs, and ensuring that American taxpayers are not footing the bill for benefits that recipients are not entitled to under federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.


“Stopping the rampant theft of taxpayer money demands a whole-of-government response, including strong participation at the state level,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “These states are happy to take hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars—much of which is exploited by fraudsters—but want zero transparency over how those tax dollars are spent. It’s pretty simple: share the data that shows how America’s money is being spent—and stolen—in your state. These lawsuits are required because these states refuse to take the most basic steps to help stop the rampant theft of taxpayer dollars.”