'This should never happen in America': RI judge orders SNAP benefits be paid in full; The Providence Journal, November 6, 2025

Katherine GreggKatie Mulvaney, The Providence Journal ; 'This should never happen in America': RI judge orders SNAP benefits be paid in full

"A fiery and fully exasperated federal judge on Nov. 6 ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fully fund food stamp benefits by the next day for more than 40 million low-income Americans, despite the government shutdown now approaching its seventh week. 

“Without SNAP funding for the month of November, sixteen million children will be immediately at risk of going hungry. This should never happen in America,” U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell said in issuing a second temporary restraining order requiring the USDA to tap into its resources to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits."

The USDA wants states to hand over food stamp data by the end of July; NPR, July 19, 2025

Jude Joffe-Block, NPR ; The USDA wants states to hand over food stamp data by the end of July

"When Julliana Samson signed up for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to help afford food as she studied at the University of California, Berkeley, she had to turn in extensive, detailed personal information to the state to qualify.

Now she's worried about how that information could be used.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made an unprecedented demand to states to share the personal information of tens of millions of federal food assistance recipients by July 30, as a federal lawsuit seeks to postpone the data collection...

She and three other SNAP recipients, along with a privacy organization and an anti-hunger group, are challenging USDA's data demand in a federal lawsuit, arguing the agency has not followed protocols required by federal privacy laws. Late Thursday, they asked a federal judge to intervene to postpone the July 30 deadline and a hearing has been scheduled for July 23.

"I am worried my personal information will be used for things I never intended or consented to," Samson wrote recently as part of an ongoing public comment period for the USDA's plan. "I am also worried that the data will be used to remove benefits access from student activists who have views the administration does not agree with."

Facing lawsuit, USDA says it will restore climate-change-related webpages; The Associated Press via Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, May 14, 2025

Melina Walling, The Associated Press via Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University; Facing lawsuit, USDA says it will restore climate-change-related webpages

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to restore climate-change-related webpages to its websites after it was sued over the deletions in February.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, argued that the deletions violated rules around citizens’ access to government information.

The USDA’s reversal comes ahead of a scheduled May 21 hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction against the agency’s actions in federal court in New York.

The department had removed resources on its websites related to climate-smart farming, conservation practices, rural clean-energy projects and access to federal loans related to those areas after President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration."