For months, the Trump administration has continued its relentless regulatory attacks on public benefits, including nutrition assistance. Here’s what you need to know about our most recent comments to the administration opposing harmful federal agency actions:
Reinstate the Annual Food Security Survey and Report
In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requested public comments on their statistical data, analysis, and research. While USDA’s intended focus was on farming data, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to implore them to reinstate their annual food security survey and report. Remember our campaign to deliver 47,000 postcards to USDA? Each of those postcards represented 1,000 of the 47 million Americans struggling with hunger in 2024—according to the last USDA food security report published with the results from the Census Bureau survey. That’s the latest data we have because USDA decided to unilaterally cancel both the survey and report!
USDA may be trying to hide the true scale of hunger after the massive cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the not-so “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). But MAZON won’t let USDA off the hook. In collaboration with several partners, about 35% of the total comments submitted urged USDA to reinstate this critical survey and report.
Food Price Data Study in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and U.S. Territories
USDA’s typical process for studying food prices comes from retail scanner data, which doesn’t capture much of the landscape of food prices in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and the U.S. Territories. So, justifiably, USDA proposed a study to fill in those data gaps and get a truly representative picture of food price data in these areas. But how they do it matters, and we need to make sure they take into account the various geographical, socio-cultural, and other diversities among the populations. That’s why MAZON collaborated with our grantee partners in Alaska, Hawaiʻi, and Puerto Rico to submit comments in June with recommendations on how USDA can do this study right. Quality matters!
Opposing Attacks on Immigrants
MAZON has long opposed the controversial public charge rule that restricts prospective green card or visa applicants based on their likelihood to need government programs for support. As a Jewish organization, MAZON deeply understands the grave harm of public charge. The Roosevelt administration’s public charge policy resulted in fewer Jews obtaining U.S. visas to escape the Nazi genocide, and many of those who did not receive entry perished in the Holocaust. MAZON condemned the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) for releasing its dangerous public charge final rule, which revokes the Biden administration’s important constraints on what types of benefits can be classified as a “public charge.”
MAZON also submitted a comment opposing the USCIS’s attempt to turn a simple change of address form for certain immigrants into a massive data collection including their receipt of means-tested public benefits (like SNAP), employment, and education. These proposed changes would create a chilling effect, reduce compliance, and harm immigrant families.
Threats to Federal Grants for the Anti-Hunger Community and More
MAZON joined several comments opposing a massive Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposal to overhaul the rules governing federal grants, cooperative agreements, and other monetary awards to nonprofits, state and local governments, and other grantees. If implemented, the proposal would politicize the federal awards process and create unprecedented financial and legal risks for grantees, including countless nonprofits, that increase the costs of accepting federal awards while decreasing the benefits. Many effective and qualified grantees may be unable to accept those risks, leading to disruptions in essential services, including food distribution, disaster recovery, housing, health, education, and more.
Adding to the harm, the proposal would open the door to unchecked religious exemptions and upset the careful balance between the rights of faith-based organizations receiving federal funding and program beneficiaries who should not be forced to engage in a religious activity. Lastly, the proposed rule would place unwarranted limits on issue advocacy, which is more important than ever to protect food security amid millions losing SNAP because of the OBBBA.
SNAP Data Privacy
When SNAP applicants and recipients give private information to the state or county agency that administers SNAP, they do so with the understanding that their information will be kept private and safe. The creation of the National SNAP Information Database upends this expectation of privacy in order to “effectuate multiple executive orders” — far from an adequate justification for a fundamental alteration in the handling of SNAP data. For over a year, MAZON has opposed USDA’s creation of a massive National SNAP Information Database through a 2025 comment, our lawsuit, and now another comment. USDA keeps threatening to take funding away from states that don’t hand over this private data for this illegal database, and MAZON will continue our advocacy to support the privacy rights of SNAP applicants and recipients from USDA’s overreach.
Tired yet?
We know — it’s a lot. The first Trump administration brought an onslaught of attacks on nutrition programs, and the attacks in this second term are never ending. There are more than five proposed rules coming from USDA in the second half of this year, including four related to implementing OBBBA’s changes to SNAP. Rest assured, MAZON remains ready to analyze, respond, and activate the anti-hunger and faith communities against these terrible proposals. We hope you’ll join us in this fight by joining our Rapid Response Team!