The Trump administration is warning that it will cut off food stamp money to more than twenty Democratic-led states in a clash over data the White House says it needs to investigate fraud in the nation’s largest nutrition program.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told President Donald Trump that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will start blocking federal funds for states that refuse to submit detailed information on SNAP recipients. SNAP, still widely known as the food stamp program, serves more than 40 million Americans each month.
Rollins said most states turned over the data without objection. According to her, 29 states complied, while 21 states, mostly Democratic-led, refused. A USDA spokesperson later said the department is missing data from 22 states.
“So as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply, and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer,” Rollins said.
NO DATA, NO MONEY — it’s that simple.
If a state won’t share data on criminal use of SNAP benefits, it won’t get a dollar of federal SNAP administrative funding.
Let’s see which states stand for accountability and which are just protecting their bribery schemes. 🤔💸 pic.twitter.com/Y1UXXDOoao
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) December 2, 2025
Her warning immediately raised alarms inside the affected states. The money at stake is the federal support they use to keep SNAP operating day to day, from hiring staff to maintaining call centers and computer systems. The administration says the freeze would not touch the actual benefits that land on families’ EBT cards, but several governors argue that losing the administrative funding would still jam up the system and make it harder for people to get help on time.
Rollins has defended the move as an accountability push. She repeated her stance on social media, writing, “NO DATA, NO MONEY, it is that simple. If a state will not share data on criminal use of SNAP benefits, it will not get a dollar of federal SNAP administrative funding.”
Democratic officials and anti hunger groups say the administration is creating a problem that does not exist. They point out that fraud in SNAP is already low and warn that cutting off money to states that refuse to comply would end up hurting the families who rely on the program the most.
Legal experts also note that USDA is already under a court order not to retaliate against states over the data fight. A coalition of 21 states and Washington, D.C., won a preliminary injunction in October blocking the agency from enforcing penalties while the lawsuit proceeds. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who is part of the case, said he would challenge any attempt to bypass the ruling. “Court orders are not optional,” he said.
The Trump administration says it has every right to hold back the administrative money until states share the data. Critics see it differently, arguing the move is political and could leave millions of people wondering whether their monthly food assistance will be disrupted.
For now, the standoff continues. USDA says states must comply if they want their funding restored. Democratic governors and attorneys general say the department is overreaching. And with more than twenty states at risk of losing federal support, the fight over SNAP data has become another front in a broader battle between the White House and Democratic-led states, with food assistance for millions caught in the middle.
