Key Takeaways
Officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia sued Monday to block the Administration for Children and Families from sharing TANF recipients' Social Security numbers, income, and marital status with DHS and other agencies.
TANF sends states more than $16 billion a year in anti-poverty grants, and the contested notice covers years of data on both past and current recipients.
The suit says the notice violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Computer Matching Act, and the Spending Clause. The policy is set to take effect August 11.
Officials from 24 states and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit Monday to stop the Administration for Children and Families from handing the personal data of millions of TANF recipients to the Department of Homeland Security. A Systems of Records Notice issued in July would let the agency share Social Security numbers, marital status, and income records of past and current recipients with any federal, state, or private entity it chooses.
TANF, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, sends states more than $16 billion a year and is one of the largest sources of cash assistance for low-income families in the country. California alone counts about 350,000 enrolled families each month. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-leads the case with New York's Letitia James and DC's Brian Schwalb, said the administration is "exploiting a program designed to ensure children do not go hungry" to build a mass surveillance database.
The coalition argues the notice violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the 1996 welfare reform law strictly limits federal oversight of TANF, violates the Computer Matching Act because no data matching agreement exists between ACF and DHS, and violates the Spending Clause because states never had fair notice of the condition when they accepted the money. The policy is set to take effect August 11, per UPI.
None of this is new, what is new is the program. Courts already blocked HHS from giving DHS access to Medicaid records and stopped USDA from demanding data on millions of SNAP recipients, and TANF now makes three major benefits programs pulled into the same fight in about a year. The suit also lands in a week when federal choices about vulnerable families keep making news, after a lapsed legal aid contract left 26,000 unaccompanied children without lawyers and a DOJ sweep charged fraud rings stealing from safety net programs like SNAP. Worth watching.
People Also Ask
What is the TANF program?
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a federal block grant created by the 1996 welfare reform law. It provides states with more than $16 billion a year to fund cash assistance and work support for low-income families with children, and states run it with substantial flexibility.
Why are states suing over TANF data?
In July the Administration for Children and Families issued a Systems of Records Notice authorizing it to share TANF recipients' personal data with DHS and other entities. The states argue the notice exceeds federal authority under the APA, violates the Computer Matching Act, and imposes an unconstitutional funding condition.
Years of records on past and current recipients, including Social Security numbers, marital status, and income, which the notice would let ACF share with any federal, state, or private entity it chooses, including DHS.
Has benefits data been used for immigration enforcement before?
The administration has tried. Courts blocked HHS from giving DHS unfettered access to Medicaid health data and halted USDA's demand for personal information on millions of SNAP recipients. The TANF notice is the third major attempt in about a year.