Meet the former Kansas lawmaker fighting for Trump admin to keep SNAP aid frozen
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Patrick Penn leads USDA defense to withhold SNAP contingency funds.
- Courts ordered partial or full November benefits amid shutdown disputes.
- USDA seeks recipient data; states resist and risk federal funding cuts.
A former Republican state representative from Kansas is on the front lines of a battle over whether hungry Americans will receive food assistance during a historic federal government shutdown.
The government funding stalemate has thrust Patrick Penn of Wichita into the spotlight as deputy under secretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services in the Department of Agriculture.
Penn has been called on to speak for USDA in multiple court fights over whether the agency must issue food assistance benefits to the roughly one in eight Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
It was Penn who filed a declaration in Massachusetts federal court last Wednesday explaining the administration’s position that $4.65 billion in SNAP contingency funds should not be used to issue November benefits while the government remains closed.
“Were the Court to force USDA to use the contingency fund, it would essentially deplete the contingency fund and USDA’s ability to respond to disasters through D-SNAP and any other emergencies,” Penn wrote.
After judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island both ruled that the USDA could not withhold November benefits completely, it was Penn who explained in court filings on Monday that the agency would only issue 50% of the benefits that SNAP households usually receive.
The total monthly cost of administering SNAP benefits is just under $9 billion, Penn wrote. Shifting money around within USDA to pay for the other half of November benefits would be irresponsible, Penn said, because it could jeopardize the agency’s ability to fund school nutrition programs unless Congress acted to replenish the money.
About 42 million Americans rely on federal food assistance, including nearly 188,000 Kansans and more than 650,000 Missourians.
On Tuesday, amid ongoing uncertainty about when partial benefits might be issued, President Donald Trump again threatened to withhold benefits entirely unless congressional Democrats agree to reopen the government on his terms.
“SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office … will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump posted on his social media site Tuesday morning.
At a White House briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is “fully complying with the court order.” USDA has provided guidance to states about issuing partial benefits, she said, but it “will take some time to receive this money.”
“We are dipping into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes — war,” Leavitt said. “And the president does not want to tap into this fund in the future. And that’s what he was referring to in his Truth Social post.”
‘Make a couple people cry’
Penn, an outspoken conservative who served in the Kansas House from 2021 until June, joined the Trump administration ready for a fight.
Speaking to a room of Wichita well-wishers in May, he promised to crack down on what he described as rampant waste, fraud and abuse within SNAP and the other USDA nutritional programs he was tapped to oversee.
“We’re going to have some fun in D.C.,” Penn said. “We’re going to break a few eggs, make a few omelettes. Make a couple (of) people cry, and that’s what we look forward to doing because America has to change.”
He said too many able-bodied people are gaming the system to receive benefits they don’t qualify for. And he intended to do something about it.
Penn has been engaged in an escalating back-and-forth with top officials in Democratic-led states that have refused to comply with USDA’s demands to turn over food assistance applicants’ and recipients’ personal information to the federal agency.
USDA says it needs the data, including the names, dates of birth, home addresses and Social Security numbers of SNAP participants, for its own auditing purposes. Gov. Laura Kelly and other Democratic executives have called the data demand an unlawful overreach.
In a September letter, Penn notified Kelly of USDA’s intent to withhold $10.4 million in SNAP funding from Kansas — a punishment he said would be repeated every three months if Kelly refuses to turn over the personal information.
Penn, a U.S. Army veteran who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring in 2017 as a captain, has emphasized the fact that he was raised in Kansas foster care. His personal experiences have informed his own opinions about how social welfare systems should be run more efficiently.
State. Rep. David Buehler, a Lansing Republican, said SNAP is in good hands under Penn’s leadership.
“I know he’s committed to what he’s doing,” Buehler said. “I think he will balance the genuinely needy folks in our community that do receive SNAP benefits and make sure that as soon as the government’s open, those are restored.”
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, said she fundamentally disagrees with Penn’s philosophy for administering federal food assistance.
“When you see someone in a position of power who has gone without before, who has suffered, who maybe hasn’t had enough to eat growing up or what have you — you can usually tell human decency by the way that they use power,” Clayton said.
“And if someone says, ‘I suffered, so other people should suffer,’ you really have to pause and consider whether this person should have power or not,” she added.
Penn did not return a phone call on Tuesday.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Meet the former Kansas lawmaker fighting for Trump admin to keep SNAP aid frozen."
