Diverging From 20 States, Vermont Shares SNAP Personal Data With USDA
Vermont’s compliance this week with the Trump administration’s request for information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants angered the sponsor of the state's comprehensive privacy bill.
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Gov. Phil Scott (R) justified Vermont’s sharing of SNAP data with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a press release Tuesday. “Although the federal government’s approach has been unnecessarily political, the bottom line is, this is a federal benefit,” his office said. “The federal government is legally entitled to this information and has been for much of the last decade.”
But Vermont Rep. Monique Priestley (D), an author of multiple comprehensive and other privacy bills, said in a statement Wednesday that sharing SNAP data “was not legally necessary, ethically defensible, nor protective of the privacy and dignity of our neighbors.”
The lawmaker noted that national consumer privacy advocates say the federal government’s request “violated several federal laws, specifically the Privacy Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the E-Government Act.” She added that the federal government “failed to meet legally required steps before requesting Vermonters’ personal data, including publishing notices for public comment, creating a privacy impact assessment, and establishing a system of records.”
Like about 20 other state attorneys general, Vermont AG Charity Clark (D) “was prepared to challenge the legality of this request,” but Scott “chose to comply without meaningful resistance,” said Priestley, referring to Clark's quotes in a Vermont Public news report. The other states are arguing in the U.S. District Court for Northern California that the federal demand for state data violates the U.S. Constitution and multiple federal privacy laws (see 2507280065). Vermont’s AG office didn’t comment Thursday.
“The damage this disclosure causes is real and immediate,” said Priestley. “Vermonters’ personal data -- including Social Security numbers, addresses, income, and household information -- is now unnecessarily exposed. Such data can be misused in decisions regarding housing, employment, education, healthcare, insurance, loans, and immigration.”
The governor’s office disagreed. “All information provided to the federal government is information states are required to provide in accordance with the USDA’s notice in the Federal Register published June 23, 2025, pursuant to the federal Privacy Act of 1974,” it said. “There is no conflict with state law, and simply objecting to this request for the sake of political resistance could put the SNAP benefits of thousands of Vermont’s most vulnerable at risk.”
Scott’s office added, “Everything we have provided to the federal government is within the limits of long-established law.”