California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a motion seeking a court order to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from requiring states to provide personal information about millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients while litigation over the issue continues. The SNAP program, which is federally funded and state-administered, supports low-income families with food assistance.
According to Attorney General Bonta, “We’re filing a motion to block the Trump Administration’s illegal attempt to bully states into providing private SNAP participants’ data. Fear should not be a factor when signing up for SNAP benefits to feed your family. The Trump Administration’s own statements contradict its claims that this data is necessary to combat ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’ We’re asking the court to prevent USDA from withholding vital funding in retaliation for states refusing to meet its unlawful demands.”
For six decades, California and other states have managed SNAP without turning over sensitive identifying information about recipients beyond what is required by law. In July 2025, however, the USDA requested extensive personal data on all SNAP applicants and recipients—including social security numbers, home addresses, and shopping history dating back five years—without clear restrictions on how this information would be used or shared.
The federal government has argued that collecting this data would help prevent fraud and abuse in the program. However, their own prior statements describe SNAP as having one of the most rigorous quality control systems among federal programs.
After Bonta and a coalition of attorneys general sued USDA over these demands, USDA threatened to withhold administrative funding essential for running SNAP at the state level. For California alone, this funding amounts to $1.4 billion annually.
In response, Bonta and attorneys general from New York and 19 other jurisdictions—including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State and Wisconsin—as well as Kentucky joined together in filing the motion for a preliminary injunction.
A copy of the motion is available online.
