Following a request by the federal government, the state of Alaska has turned over the personal information of roughly 70,000 Alaskans enrolled in the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.
As first reported by NPR, the federal government normally collects information to determine a SNAP applicant’s financial eligibility for the program. The new request goes beyond that, to cover name, date of birth, address, contact information, Social Security number, citizenship status and information about people living in a recipient’s household.
It affects nearly 1 in 10 Alaska residents, who participate in the program.
In a May 6 memo, the USDA said it was requesting that information because of an executive order by President Donald Trump. Numerous news agencies have reported that the Department of Government Efficiency — part of the executive branch under Trump — has used that order to combine personal data collected from several agencies to help the federal government track and arrest immigrants they want to remove from the country.
“Alaska is complying with the federal government’s requirement to share the information as requested,” said Alex Huseman, a public information officer for the Alaska Department of Health.
“Per the USDA guidance on May 6, 2025 … all data related to SNAP is being shared with the federal government,” he said. “This includes any information on a client’s application or renewal, any documentation sent in as part of their application or renewal, or other data acquired by DPA staff while processing applications and renewals.”
The USDA is specifically requesting “records sufficient to identify individuals as applicants for, or recipients of, SNAP benefits, including but not limited to personally identifiable information in the form of names, dates of birth, personal addresses used, and Social Security numbers.”
Huseman said the federal government has not requested that information before.
The Alaska Legislature has previously expressed concerns about the federal collection of Alaskans’ personal data but has not addressed the SNAP data-sharing arrangement.
In 2008, the Legislature forbade the state from spending money to implement the post-Sept. 11 REAL ID program, and only begrudgingly reversed course years later.
In 2017, lawmakers said they did not trust federal government data collection and requested additional privacy protections. Among those lawmakers was then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla.
“Federal contractors, businesses, everyone’s a victim here, of the federal government,” Dunleavy told the Anchorage Daily News about the REAL ID program.
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
