TOPEKA – Continued denial by Governor Kelly to provide data on Kansas’ state-paid food assistance program for poor Kansans resulted over the weekend in the suspension of some $10.4 million in that funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The issue was the subject of a lawsuit by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed September 8 which sought to compel Kelly to release the information on the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as required by Kansas law, which says the government “shall” provide “any” report required by the federal government.
According to a September 20 letter from USDA Deputy Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Patrick Penn, the Kelly administration failed to comply by a Sept. 19 deadline and therefore Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) disallowed a payment of about $10.4 million to the State of Kansas. Kelly’s office said the governor will appeal the order which will temporarily keep the money flowing until the appeal is heard.
READ PENN’S LETTER TO GOVERNOR KELLY
“We warned that this would happen when we filed the lawsuit on behalf of all Kansans against the governor,” Kobach said in a press statement Monday. “She is required by Kansas law to provide this basic information to the USDA. Now low-income Kansas families won’t be able to put food on the table because of her political defiance,” Kobach said.
USDA numbers from June 2024 said more than 97,000 households in Kansas received SNAP benefits – some 187,000 people. Kelly has called USDA’s request illegal and Kobach’s lawsuit “political theater.”
USDA requested the information, which included personal information like names, addresses, immigration status and social security numbers, in an effort to clean up the SNAP roles and ensure only qualified recipients were receiving benefits. Privacy laws restrict how much of that data can be shared. Over the years broad swaths of abuse have been reported within the program. Privacy advocates claim providing that information could result in a “chilling effect,” stopping some people from applying for benefits. USDA says its goal is to increase oversight, ensure funds are being used properly, and verify eligibility (including immigration status) under executive directives.
Kobach said Kelly’s refusal to provide the data appeared political.
“The Governor seems to be blinded by her political ideology.,” Kobach said. “She is flagrantly violating Kansas law, and she is hurting needy Kansans in the process.”
FNS will continue to disallow future payments every three months until Kansas provides the requested information, Kobach’s office said.
LETTER FROM CONGRESSMEN ESTES AND MANN TO KELLY
“The complete transmission of the required SNAP enrollment data is imperative to ensure FNS and the state agency have full insight into the SNAP program integrity,” Penn’s letter to Kelly reads. “In the absence of data, FNS and the Department For Children and Families lack key information necessary to ensure effective stewardship of taxpayer dollars. FNS has already discovered from states that are complying with this statutory data sharing requirement that fraud or duplication in state distribution of federal funds has gone unreported and needs remediation.”
Other states have provided USDA the requested information within a few days. The only other state in the country to be penalized for failure to provide the information is Pennsylvania.
READ THE AG’S LAWSUIT AGAINST KELLY HERE
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
