Kansas governor reaches deal with Trump admin, agrees to hand over SNAP data
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas will provide SNAP applicant and recipient data since 2020 to USDA.
- USDA agreed not to require full SSNs, not to share personal data with foreign governments.
- Agreement cancels the $10.4M disallowance letter once Kansas shares the data.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced on Friday that her administration will reverse course and provide the federal government with the personal information of every Kansan who has received or applied for food assistance since 2020.
The Democratic governor, who had refused to comply with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s data demands since last May, said in a press release that she had secured an agreement with USDA that protects Kansans’ private data from being shared with foreign governments.
“The USDA’s decision to adhere to the (Department for Children and Families’) terms ensures that Kansans’ private, personal information, including full social security numbers, will not be shared with foreign governments,” Kelly said in the release.
“Kansas has complied with federal and state laws throughout this entire process and all we have wanted is for the USDA to do the same,” she continued. “In reaching this agreement, we have successfully preserved Kansans’ privacy against the threat posed by the USDA’s initial request that amounted to federal overreach and violation of data protection laws.”
The release noted that after the data is shared, USDA will cancel the disallowance letter it sent last September announcing plans to withhold $10.4 million in funding for Kansas’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Kelly’s administration had appealed that decision.
State records show that roughly 188,000 Kansans receive monthly SNAP benefits.
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who is running for insurance secretary, released a statement shortly after Kelly’s announcement framing the news as a capitulation.
“Back in August, we called it what it was: the Kelly cover-up,” Hawkins said. “Gov. Kelly refused to release SNAP eligibility data the federal government required, dragging the state through months of unnecessary legal fights, and wasted taxpayer dollars in the process. Now, seven months later, she’s declared victory for doing exactly what she was legally obligated to do from the beginning.”
SNAP data demand
USDA requested every state’s SNAP data, including the names, dates of birth, home addresses and Social Security numbers of applicants and recipients, saying it planned to review the information to identify potential fraud and abuse within the food assistance program.
The Kansas Senate passed a bill earlier this month that would require Kelly and DCF Sec. Laura Howard to comply with the data demand.
On Thursday, a federal judge in California ruled in favor of a coalition of Democrat-led states that sued the Trump administration over the USDA request. U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the agency from withholding funding to those states on the basis of officials’ refusal to turn over sensitive personal information.
Kelly signed onto a separate 25-state lawsuit in Massachusetts that is ongoing. Because Kansas is not a part of the California challenge, the ruling protecting states’ right to withhold data does not apply to the Sunflower State.
Attorney General Kris Kobach, whose own lawsuit attempting to compel Kelly’s administration to turn over the data was thrown out by a Shawnee County judge, issued a statement calling it “laughable” for Kelly to imply that USDA was ever going to share sensitive data with foreign governments.
“The governor‘s office gave in on the most important reason why they were refusing to provide the data in the first place: the governor did not want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to share SNAP recipient names with other agencies in the United States government — specifically the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security,” Kobach said. “She was trying to protect non-citizens from being deported over fraudulently obtaining benefits. “
Kelly previously told The Star in December that the Trump administration’s threats to withhold another $10 million every three months, if she refused to comply, would not compel her to turn over Kansans’ data without guarantees about how it would be used.
“I don’t like being subject to bullying or being bribed,” Kelly said at the time.
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 1:23 PM with the headline "Kansas governor reaches deal with Trump admin, agrees to hand over SNAP data."
