Kansas will give the federal government personal data for hundreds of thousands of food assistance recipients after spending months fighting the release of the data.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Kansas for the names, birthdays, personal addresses and Social Security numbers of Kansans who have received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since Jan. 1, 2020.
The federal government said the data will help it find waste and fraud and ensure only eligible Kansans are getting the money.
Gov. Laura Kelly originally refused to hand over the data, saying the state couldn’t legally hand it over. Now, the state has agreed to give the personal data, saying it got additional privacy protections.
At first, Kelly’s administration was worried that data would be used to create one large database of residents and that the information would be used for other reasons not involved with food assistance — like checking people’s immigration status.
They have now been told that the SNAP data will only be used for the SNAP program. It previously seemed that Kansas wouldn’t hand out any data until a lawsuit challenging the request was finished.
Laura Howard, secretary for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, previously said that releasing the information before the lawsuit was final could open Kansas to lawsuits.
“I honestly believe that if I were to release that data, then the courts find in favor of the states, then I’m putting the state at liability for releasing the personal information of more than 700,000 Kansans,” Howard told the Kansas Reflector.
About 187,000 Kansans — roughly 6% of the state’s population — currently receive SNAP benefits. The federal government is seeking information on people who received those over a six-year period.
The lawsuit challenging the request is ongoing, and the about two dozen states that sued have a series of victories.
The federal government has threatened to withhold SNAP funds from states that don’t send over the data. A judge ruled last Thursday that the federal government couldn’t do that. A day later, Kelly allowed the data to be released.
The judge did say that federal law allows limited data sharing and only to people “directly connected with the administration or enforcement” of food assistance.
Republicans say Kelly folded after spending months fighting to keep this data private.
“Governor Kelly refused to release SNAP eligibility data the federal government required, dragged the state through months of unnecessary legal fights, and wasted taxpayer dollars in the process,” said Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins, a Sedgwick County Republican, in a Feb. 27 press release. “That’s not leadership. That’s political theater at your expense.”
Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach agreed.
“Her claim that she obtained some sort of victory because it won’t be shared with foreign governments is laughable,” Kobach said. “The United States government was never intending to share SNAP recipient names with foreign governments and would have absolutely no reason ever to do so.”
Kelly’s office said it has secured a major victory in the SNAP data case. They disagree with Kobach and Hawkins and say they received promises that weren’t originally on the table. SNAP data will only be used for SNAP administration — that was not true when the information was requested last year.
The information hasn’t been handed over yet, and previous comments from state officials said it could take time to process the request. But reaching an agreement means the federal government will stop trying to strip away SNAP dollars from Kansas — something it already couldn’t do.
This story was originally published by The Beacon, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
