Tag: welfare

Privacy and hunger groups sue over USDA attempt to collect personal data of SNAP recipients

Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

Privacy and hunger groups sue over USDA attempt to collect personal data of SNAP recipientsBy REBECCA BOONEAssociated PressThe Associated Press

Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal privacy laws when it ordered states and vendors to turn over five years of data about food assistance program applicants and enrollees, including their names, birth dates, personal addresses and social security numbers.

The lawsuit “seeks to ensure that the government is not exploiting our most vulnerable citizens by disregarding longstanding privacy protections,” National Student Legal Defense Network attorney Daniel Zibel wrote in the complaint. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Mazon Inc.: A Jewish Response to Hunger joined the four food assistance recipients in bringing the lawsuit.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a social safety net that serves more than 42 million people nationwide. Under the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays for 100% of the food benefits but the states help cover the administrative costs. States also are responsible for determining whether people are eligible for the benefits, and for issuing the benefits to enrollees.

As a result, states have lots of highly personal financial, medical, housing, tax and other information about SNAP applicants and their dependents, according to the lawsuit.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 20 directing agencies to ensure “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs” as part of the administration’s effort to stop “ waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.”

Keep reading

Liberals Suddenly Value Fiscal Responsibility After Budget Office Says More Births Will Increase Deficit

Liberals have a new argument for keeping federal money flowing to Planned Parenthood: defunding the organization would cost taxpayers more.

Democrats and abortion advocates are framing the defunding of one of the largest abortion providers in the country as a financial “cost” to taxpaying Americans. Citing estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), they are voicing concern that the GOP’s plan to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood through the GOP reconciliation bill would increase the national deficit by $300 million due to more babies being born.

“About three in four people say they oppose defunding Planned Parenthood health centers. But Republicans do not care — they need to appease their far-right, anti-choice fringe,” Democratic Washington Sen. Patty Murray said on May 14 about the CBO’s estimates. “Although the irony is, in this case, defunding Planned Parenthood would actually cost our country more money in the long term.”

Murray’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

Planned Parenthood performed over 400,000 abortions in fiscal year 2023-24 and received more than $700 million in government reimbursements and grants, according to its latest annual report. In contrast, private contributions dropped 31% relative to the previous fiscal year, totaling $684.1 million.

The CBO declined to clarify how the deficit would increase due to the federal cuts in response to a DCNF inquiry.

However, the CBO stated in 2015 that a House bill to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood would increase spending by $130 million over the course of a decade. The reason, CBO explained, was that the bill would reduce “services that help women avert pregnancies” and that “additional births that would result from enacting such a bill would add to federal spending for Medicaid.”

Keep reading

Colombian woman charged with illegally voting in 2024 election stealing $400,000 in taxpayer funded benefits

A Colombian woman living illegally in the United States lived under a stolen identity for more than two decades, improperly received more than $400,000 in stolen federal benefits, and illegally voted in the 2024 presidential election, federal prosecutors said Thursday. 

Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, 59, also obtained welfare benefits, a REAL ID and eight other state ID’s, the Justice Department said. 

Orovio-Hernandez allegedly used the stolen identity to submit a fraudulent voter registration in January 2023, and cast a ballot in last year’s presidential election, prosecutors said. She was captured on surveillance camera at a bank wearing an “I voted” sticker on Nov. 5, 2024, Election Day, according to court documents. 

She is charged with false representation of a Social Security number; making a false statement in an application for a United States passport; aggravated identity theft; receiving stolen government money or property; fraudulent voter registration; and fraudulent voting. Orovio-Hernandez has been held in federal custody since February, when she was charged with identity theft and other offenses. 

Keep reading

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Defunds Medicaid-Covered Transgender Surgery

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending budget, lovingly dubbed the “one big, beautiful, bill,” strips Medicaid’s funding for transgender surgeries — a move that will impact a large portion of such procedures if it passes the Senate.

The reconciliation budget, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives early Thursday morning in a 215-214-1 vote, would have initially prohibited Medicaid from covering “gender transition procedures” for children, until a late Wednesday amendment struck the words “minors” and “under 18 years of age” from that section, the Independent reported.

Gender transition treatments that would no longer be covered include puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries. 

A 2023 study by gynecologists from Columbia University and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, revealed that a staggering 25 percent of so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries in the United States are covered by Medicaid. 

Out of the 48,019 patients identified in the report who underwent such surgeries, over 12,000 were Medicaid recipients. 

Keep reading

Fury as Welsh Labour government spends £250,000 on project to count MOTHS while it cuts public services

Taxpayers have been left furious after the Welsh Labour government spent £250,000 on a project to count moths – while it cuts public services. 

The ‘Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn’ project is surveying the moths’ limestone habitats on Llandudno’s Great Orme headland and in neighbouring areas. 

It was handed a grant of £248,348 by the Government’s Nature Networks Fund, and will be delivered by the Heritage Fund.

The under-fire government claims it with help protect at-risk insects, including the Horehound Plume micro-moth. 

A Tory councillor branded the spending ‘ridiculous’ – as families struggle with the cost of living and local authorities cut frontline services.

Llandudno’s Louise Emery hit out after a grant was awarded by the Welsh Government to Conwy county council.

She said: ‘Rather than for the benefit of invertebrates, how about Welsh Government benefit schools and communities by properly funding local authorities to improve education and provide basic services such as maintaining highways and public toilets?

‘It’s about priorities, and establishing the number of moths on specific limestone headlands should not be a priority when Welsh Labour in Cardiff continue to tell local authorities they have no money. This is utterly ridiculous.’

The project, which also works with schools, found ‘a staggering’ 1,109 horehound plume moth caterpillars on the Great Orme in Llandudno.

Cllr Emery continued: ‘There is money available from Welsh Government but only for certain things, so while local authority budgets are really being squeezed, Welsh Government finds money for projects such as the Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn.

Keep reading

Cop who claimed total disability was seen ‘dancing and drinking’ at Stagecoach, ran 5Ks, and went to Disneyland: DA

A former police officer from California claimed she couldn’t perform her duties after sustaining a head injury on the job — and then she was seen dancing at a music festival.

According to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, 39-year-old Nicole Brown was a police officer with the Westminster Police Department when she was injured on the job in March 2022. The release stated that Brown sustained “a minor abrasion to her forehead while attempting to arrest and handcuff an uncooperative suspect.” She was examined at the emergency room after she complained about headaches, but was released without any medical restrictions.

Brown then allegedly called out sick for several days and claimed she’d been diagnosed with severe concussion syndrome, which resulted in her being placed on total temporary disability.

While unable to perform her duties as an officer, Brown was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits after sustaining her alleged injury while on the job — including her full salary, tax-free, paid for by “the city, county, or state agency that employs the officer,” according to the DA. After a one-year period, that amount decreases to 2/3 of her full salary but can pay out for up to 104 weeks.

According to the DA, Brown collected more than $600,000 in benefits.

However, evidence obtained by the DA’s office called Brown’s so-called “total disability” into question. While out on disability, Brown allegedly claimed that she suffered from “headaches, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, problems processing thoughts and words, and an inability to work on the computer or do any screentime.”

But on April 23, 2023 — a full year after Brown went on disability and while still claiming to be suffering symptoms of a concussion — Brown was seen by “several people” who had knowledge of her medical status “dancing and drinking at the Stagecoach Music Festival, with more than 75,000 people in attendance with loud music and bright lights everywhere and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.”

After those people reported Brown’s activities at Stagecoach to the Westminster Police Department, an investigation into the officer’s disability claims began.

Keep reading

22 More People, Entities Charged in Arizona Medicaid Fraud Scheme

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 22 individuals and entities linked to a massive Medicaid fraud scheme involving sober living homes.

The charges include money laundering, theft, conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, patient referral fraud, and forgery, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday.

These indictments are part of an ongoing investigation into a $2.7 billion fraud that exploited Arizona’s health care system, particularly targeting Native Americans seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

According to the charge document, the 20 individuals indicted are associated with a church and a mental health organization called Happy House Behavioral Health. Prosecutors allege that Happy House was paid over $60 million for services that were either never rendered or only partially completed. Some of the billing, they say, was for clients who were deceased or incarcerated.

Prosecutors also allege that sober living facilities referred clients to Happy House, which in turn received funds from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s Medicaid agency. Happy House then allegedly paid the referring sober homes for those client placements, an arrangement at the center of the fraudulent scheme charges.

Keep reading

USDA Approves Nebraska’s Banning Soda and Energy Drinks From Food Stamps

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a waiver on May 19 restricting the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds to buy soda or energy drinks in Nebraska, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a May 19 statement.

This is the first-ever state waiver banning soda and energy drinks from SNAP, popularly known as food stamps.

“Prior to this waiver, SNAP recipients could buy anything except alcohol, tobacco, hot foods, and personal care products,” said the statement.

The waiver, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026, is part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, the USDA said, adding that this “historic action seeks to reverse alarming disease trends across the country.”

One in three children between the ages of 12 and 19 is affected by prediabetes, it said. Forty percent of school-aged children and adolescents suffer from at least one chronic condition, while 15 percent of students in high school drink a minimum of one soda per day.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February establishing the President’s Commission to Make America Healthy Again. The agency is tasked with investigating the “root causes of America’s escalating health crisis,” including chronic disease among children, according to a White House fact sheet.

Keep reading

Members Of Congress Want Federal Investigation Into Use Of Florida Medicaid Funds To Oppose Marijuana Legalization By Group Tied To DeSantis

Two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida are asking the federal government to investigate what they describe as “potentially unlawful diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds via a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The money was used to fight against a citizen ballot initiative, vehemently opposed by DeSantis, that would have legalized marijuana for adults.

Reps. Kathy Castor and Darren Soto sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general as well as Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formally requesting they initiate a Medicaid fraud investigation.

“The diversion of Medicaid dollars requires immediate investigation,” the two lawmakers wrote. “These are proceeds that rightfully belong to state taxpayers to serve the citizens who rely on Medicaid, including children, pregnant women, neighbors with disabilities and those served by long-term care.”

The two lawmakers, members of a House committee with oversight of Medicaid, emphasized that Congress is “very focused on waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid dollars.”

“Any unlawful diversion of Medicaid dollars in Florida,” they wrote, “means that the state is less able to provide services to our neighbors who rely on Medicaid and the providers who serve them.”

The letter follows allegations that a $10 million donation from a state legal settlement was improperly made to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, which in turn sent $8.5 million to a campaign opposing the proposed marijuana legalization ballot measure, Amendment 3.

Notably, the Hope Florida Foundation was founded by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife.

“On October 17, Secure Florida’s Future donated $2 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc., a Political Action Committee (PAC) controlled by Governor DeSantis’s then-chief of staff James Uthmeier that was created to campaign against Amendment 3,” the lawmakers’ new letter says. “Governor DeSantis strongly opposed Amendment 3. Days later, Secure Florida’s Future sent Keep Florida Clean Inc. an additional $1.75 million.”

“On October 22, the Hope Florida Foundation wired $5 million to the 501(c)4 nonprofit Save Our Society from Drugs that proposed spending the ‘grant’ on ‘developing and implementing strategies that directly address the substance use crisis facing our communities,’” it continues, detailing the alleged impropriety. “On October 23, the next day, Save Our Society from Drugs donated $1.6 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc. Over the coming days, Save Our Society from Drugs donated an additional $3.15 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc.”

“While there are limited financial disclosure requirements associated with 501(c)4 organizations,” the lawmakers said, “records appear to show that a total of $8.5 million from the Centene settlement with AHCA went from the Hope Florida Foundation to the Amendment 3-focused Keep Florida Clean, Inc. PAC, the same PAC that also donated funding to the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Freedom Fund. ”

“Hope Florida had raised only about $2 million during its three years of existence,” they pointed out, “but in one fell swoop, received $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, which was immediately funneled through other nonprofits to a PAC directed by the Governor’s Chief of Staff.”

Keep reading

Gov. Abbott Requests Waiver to Ban Unhealthy SNAP Purchases in Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott has formally requested a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prohibit the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for the purchase of unhealthy foods, such as soda and candy. 

The move, announced in a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, marks a significant push to reshape the nutritional standards of SNAP purchases in Texas.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, helping over 41 million Americans afford groceries each year. While the program’s stated goal is to increase access to nutritious food, critics argue that a substantial portion of SNAP benefits are currently spent on items with little or no nutritional value.

USDA data cited by Texas lawmakers indicates that about 20 percent of SNAP dollars go toward sugary drinks and snack foods, with sweetened beverages alone accounting for 9.3 percent of expenditures.

Abbott’s letter emphasizes that SNAP was created to promote nutrition and health, but instead “many SNAP purchases are for food with little to no nutritious value.” He wrote that the waiver would ensure “taxpayer dollars are used only to purchase healthy, nutritious food.”

Keep reading