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Washington’s attorney general on Thursday sued to stop its food stamp payment processor from sharing program participants’ data with the federal government, which could use the information for immigration enforcement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in May requested states and contractors hand over personal data of SNAP recipients and applicants going back five years. A letter to states explained the rationale was to “ensure program integrity, including by verifying the eligibility of benefit recipients.”
This followed President Donald Trump’s executive orders seeking to get data from state programs that receive federal funding and to stop that money from going to immigrants without legal status.
Fidelity Information Services has served as the third-party processor in Washington for the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Over 20 states use Fidelity, according to court documents.
“People who need food assistance for themselves and their families should be able to trust that their data will be protected and kept private,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “If a contractor fails to uphold the terms they’ve agreed to, we will hold them accountable under the law.”
Fidelity Information Services had told its state clients it planned to cooperate with the Trump administration. But the state’s Department of Social and Health Services, which runs SNAP here, told Fidelity not to share the Washington data. Other states similarly did not comply.
The company agreed to Washington’s wishes, but ignored requests from the Department of Social and Health Services this month to confirm the company wouldn’t turn over data, according to the lawsuit filed in Thurston County Superior Court.
Washington’s contract with Fidelity includes “strict safeguards” to protect enrollee information, the complaint says.
Fidelity didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The Trump administration backed off its initial request for the SNAP data in the face of a lawsuit from advocacy groups arguing the federal government was exceeding its authority and violating privacy protections.
But since then, the Department of Agriculture has taken a new approach. In late June, the department filed a notice in the Federal Register about creating a new database of information from states and third-party payment processors.
In the notice, the federal agency wrote that it plans to use the database to “ensure the integrity of Government programs, including by verifying SNAP recipient eligibility against federally maintained databases, identifying and eliminating duplicate enrollments, and performing additional eligibility and program integrity checks.”
Records shared would include names, social security numbers, dates of birth and addresses.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told state agencies across the country they needed to provide her agency with their data by July 30.
Since then, state officials have reached out to Fidelity to make sure it won’t share Washington’s data, but the company hasn’t confirmed, according to the lawsuit.
“We are forced to assume FIS will breach its contract with DSHS by disclosing DSHS’s information to USDA without DSHS’s written consent,” officials reportedly told Fidelity on Tuesday.
In public comment on the Federal Register notice, the state Department of Social and Health Services said it “is concerned that we may be unable to ensure that data can be securely submitted to the new system within the timeframe outlined.”
“Until functional details of the system including frequency of reporting, data format requirements, transmission methodology, lookback period, protocols to ensure data is not used for purposes not authorized by statute, and other relevant business requirements are communicated by USDA, we cannot estimate the timeframe in which we would be able to provide the data required in the notice,” the agency continued.
Last week, Brown and more than a dozen other attorneys general urged the feds to withdraw the database proposal.
The federal government funds SNAP, which helps low-income residents pay for food via monthly benefits loaded onto Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, cards. States run the program, with the assistance of third-party processors, like Fidelity.
The state also funds its own Food Assistance Program to provide benefits to people excluded from SNAP due to their immigration status. Fidelity is also the contractor for this program.
In April, the most recent month for which data is available, over 906,000 Washingtonians received a total of $167 million in SNAP benefits. That’s more than 10% of the state’s residents. Nationwide, the program serves upward of 42 million people.
The state Department of Social and Health Services declined to comment due to the pending litigation.
The attorney general is asking for a judge to immediately order Fidelity not to provide Washington’s food benefit data. The lawsuit accuses Fidelity of breach of contract, and says a data disclosure would violate the state’s anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws.
The Trump administration has made unprecedented moves in recent months to obtain state-level data that could be used to target immigrants without legal status.
Washington and other states have sued the White House over sharing personal data of Medicaid recipients with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A hearing in that case in northern California federal court is set for next month.
This post was originally authored and published by Jake Goldstein-Street from Washington State Standard via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
