Trump admin threatened to withhold SNAP funds in Pa. and N.J. unless recipient data is released. N.J. AG called stance 'immoral'

Alfred Lubrano, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 4, 2025

Published in News & Features

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The Trump administration’s threat to withhold money that Democratic-run states use to administer the SNAP food aid program unless officials release personal information about individual recipients puts 2 million people in Pennsylvania and more than 800,000 in New Jersey at risk of food insecurity.

On Wednesday, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin called the administration’s stance “deeply immoral.”

“The past few weeks have shown that the Trump administration is willing to sacrifice millions of Americans’ most basic needs in service of a political agenda,” he added.

In a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that data describing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and immigration status are necessary to ferret out fraud, the Associated Press reported. The Department of Agriculture runs the SNAP program.

Twenty-two states, including New Jersey, have sued the administration over its demand for personal information, which states have never shared with the federal government. Representing Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro joined the lawsuit. A California federal court issued a preliminary injunction on Oct. 15, allowing all parties until next Monday to respond.

The federal government splits the cost of running SNAP with states, and the Trump administration said it is not planning to take SNAP benefits from individuals, but rather to pull funds it sends to the states to run the program..

Individuals could nonetheless see their payments disrupted, said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, in an interview. The agency is a national nonprofit that fights hunger.

“People in the Philadelphia region could go hungry,” he said. “Even people in rural Pennsylvania and South Jersey in counties that supported Trump who are highly dependent on these programs could be hurt.

“This is an authoritarian intrusion of big government. It’s a way to bully Democratic states.”

Around 500,000 of the 2 million people in Pennsylvania who receive the federal food aid are in Philadelphia.

Neither Shapiro nor New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy offered comments. The White House referred requests for comment to the USDA, which released a statement Wednesday evening complaining that blue states “choose to protect illegals, criminals, and bad actors over the American taxpayer.”

The statement added that the USDA recently sent an additional request to Democratic-run states for data. However, the statement warned, “if they fail to comply, they will be provided with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds.”

Lately, the SNAP program has played a significant role in aspects of how the Trump administration governs, advocates say.

During the shutdown, the Trump administration paused SNAP benefits in early November, and then went to the Supreme Court to fight orders by federal judges to release the funding.

The way SNAP has been thrust into the White House’s partisan battles irks George Matysik, executive director of the Share Food Program, which provides food to hundreds of Philadelphia-area pantries. “We have a serious food affordability crisis developing and it requires a focused response, not continuous political sideshows,” he said Wednesday.

Temple University sociologist Judith Levine agreed. “It’s extremely disturbing that because of political games, people may lose this very basic benefit needed for survival,” she said. “Being food insecure has nothing to do with infighting between political parties.”

Loss of SNAP places an inordinate strain on the charitable food system, primarily food pantries, which in turn hurts families, said Eliza Kinsey, a professor in the department of family medicine and community health at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

“There’s tons of evidence that stoppages of SNAP can disproportionately affect households with children,” she said. “Cutting SNAP could be disastrous.”

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