The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department went to court on June 26, 2026, suing Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota over a USDA demand for five years of SNAP applicant data. In its filing, DOJ said USDA first asked for the records in May 2025, renewed the request in May 2026, and still had not received the data from those four states. DOJ also said 28 other jurisdictions turned over the information.

USDA says it wants the data so it can check whether states are properly administering SNAP, including eligibility determinations and benefit levels. The department says the records it received from compliant states point to billions of dollars in annual overpayments and fraud. The agency’s own SNAP materials describe the program as a federal-state operation, with USDA setting national policy and state agencies handling much of the day-to-day administration.

The dispute now sits at the intersection of program oversight and state control over sensitive benefit records. The states named in the lawsuits have resisted handing over the files, and the June 26 filings do not resolve the underlying legal question of how far the federal government can go in demanding state-held SNAP data. For now, the case is only at the starting line: the lawsuits were newly filed, and no court has ruled on the merits.

The fight also exposes a familiar tension in federal benefits programs. Washington can demand compliance with the rules it funds, but states often control the records that make those rules enforceable. DOJ is arguing that the requested data is necessary to police eligibility and payment accuracy. The states are betting that federal oversight has limits when it reaches into years of personal information held in state systems. Which side wins will shape how much data USDA can require from state agencies the next time it wants to audit a safety-net program.