By Nate Raymond
Feb 26 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from cutting off funding for 22 Democratic-led states to administer food stamp benefits unless they turned over data on millions of people who received the aid.
U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the U.S. Department of Agriculture from halting funding based on demands it made in recent months for the states to supply data on recipients
of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
State attorneys general had asked the judge to block USDA from doing so, saying it was threatening to cut off administrative funding for the program despite an earlier ruling by Chesney preventing it from stripping them of funding for SNAP.
The USDA in letters sent to the states in November and December had renewed its demands for information including the names, addresses and immigration status of individuals in those states who sought aid through the government's food aid program for low-income people.
About 42 million people receive benefits from SNAP, which is largely funded by the federal government and administered by states. Immigrants who are in the United States illegally are not eligible for SNAP.
The agency said it needed the data to fulfill the administration's goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in government assistance programs and had established new protocols to secure the data.
But Chesney, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the USDA's demands for data and threats to cut off funding appeared contrary to the law governing SNAP, and that the agency's protocols would allow it to improperly share data with unauthorized entities.
USDA did not respond to a request for comment.
Twenty-eight states, largely led by Republicans, have so far submitted the data the USDA sought, according to a November letter from the agency.
Among the states that challenged the USDA's demand were California, New York and Arizona.
New York Attorney General Letitia James in a social media post said Thursday's ruling would protect SNAP data "for millions of vulnerable people and our immigrant communities."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
