West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey is shown at a news conference, on June 2, 2025, at the Governor's Mansion on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Tuesday he’s inclined to comply with a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to supply personal data for state residents who rely on a federal food assistance program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture , including recipients’ names, dates of birth, personal addresses and Social Security numbers to comply with a Trump executive order called “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos.â€
The request also included records to calculate the amount of SNAP benefits they got over time.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey is shown at a news conference, on June 2, 2025, at the Governor's Mansion on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston.
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE | Gazette-Mail file photo
Morrisey said he needs to look further into the federal request for SNAP recipients personal data, but conceptually the state wants to help the Trump administration’s purpose.
“The goal that they have is to root out fraud, waste and abuse, and to go after undocumented aliens,†Morrisey said. “And I think that they want to look at a number of the public programs, including SNAP. I’m supportive of that.
“Obviously you always want to protect the privacy of citizens, but there’s a real issue ensuring that we’re going to have the adequate details to go after fraud, waste and abuse, and to make sure that undocumented aliens and other people are not taking advantage of these benefits unlawfully,†he said. “So my inclination is to work closely with the Trump administration on that and make sure that we’re giving them the tools they need to limit bad use of taxpayer money.â€
Morrisey’s comments came in response to a question from West Virginia Watch.
Last week, 22 organizations — including the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, the ACLU of West Virginia, Facing Hunger Foodbank and the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition — called on Morrisey to reject with the request, calling it “an outrageous act of federal overreach†without clear parameters for how the federal government intends to use the personal data.
A coalition of 21 states and Washington D.C. led by Democrat attorneys general in California and New York over privacy concerns with the data request. They asked a judge to stop the government from making the demand or stop it from withholding funding from states that don’t comply.
In West Virginia last year, , according to the Center on Budget and Policy.
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