There’s an old saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and that’s essentially the argument Rep. Tim Burchett is making as he turns up the heat on five Democratic governors over the federal food stamp program.
The Tennessee Republican, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency—better known as the DOGE subcommittee—sent letters Wednesday to the governors of New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania demanding answers about why their states have not turned over SNAP data requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The information, USDA says, is needed to investigate fraud within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the more than $100 billion federal program that provides grocery assistance to millions of low-income Americans.
According to Burchett, the department has already uncovered at least $3 billion in potential waste, fraud, and abuse after reviewing records from the 29 states that have complied with the request. That statistic has become the centerpiece of his argument that every remaining state should participate.
And that’s where the fight begins.
The five states that have declined to provide the requested data—New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—also happen to have some of the nation’s largest SNAP populations. Burchett argues that refusing to cooperate could leave billions more in questionable payments undiscovered.
In his letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Burchett didn’t mince words.
“USDA would likely be able to identify billions more in potential fraud if non-complying states, including New York, which is among the states with the largest number of SNAP beneficiaries, were to step up and constructively participate in this effort,” he wrote.
He added that New York’s continued refusal “carries a great cost to the American public.”
New York, however, strongly disputes the premise.
A spokesperson for Hochul rejected accusations that the state is unlawfully withholding information.
“Any allegation that New York is unlawfully withholding data is patently false,” the spokesperson said.
The governor’s office emphasized that New York takes oversight of SNAP seriously while continuing to review USDA’s request. Officials also pointed to previous litigation, noting that a federal court blocked an earlier Trump administration effort requiring 22 states—including New York—to provide certain SNAP recipient information.
The spokesperson also accused congressional Republicans of pursuing cuts to food assistance programs while Hochul remains focused on ensuring eligible New Yorkers receive benefits.
The other four governors—Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, and Josh Shapiro—had not publicly responded to Burchett’s letters as of Wednesday.
Timing matters here.
The letters arrived just before the House DOGE subcommittee convened a hearing examining fraud within SNAP, giving Burchett an opportunity to frame the discussion around accountability, transparency, and taxpayer dollars.
“Roughly $10 billion in taxpayer funds were lost through SNAP in 2024, while some states refuse to hand over the data needed to crack down on fraud,” Burchett said in a statement.
He continued, “Americans are sick of their money being wasted or stolen by fraudsters. SNAP is one of the federal government’s largest welfare programs, costing taxpayers more than $100 billion each year.”
For Burchett, the issue is straightforward: if investigators believe they can identify fraudulent payments through data analysis, every state should cooperate.
For the states resisting the request, the matter appears more complicated. Legal disputes over privacy, federal authority, and previous court rulings continue to shape how some state governments respond to federal demands for recipient information.
That tension—between protecting sensitive personal data and aggressively rooting out fraud—is likely to remain at the center of this debate.
