Federal judge orders disclosure of food stamp information

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture must disclose to the Argus Leader newspaper the annual food stamp revenues for stores nationwide participating in the federal program, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier in Sioux Falls disagreed with the Agriculture Department’s argument that such disclosure would inflict competitive harm on grocery stores participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.

Witnesses for the Department of Agriculture during a 2016 bench trial said that the grocery industry is highly competitive because profit margins are low and that disclosing the food stamp information could be used against businesses by their competitors.

For example, Peter Larkin, president and CEO of the National Grocers Association, testified that making public the sales data could allow competitors to identify high-dollar SNAP locations and locate stores nearby.

Citing the “speculative nature” of the agency’s claims and the Freedom of Information Act’s preference for transparency, Schreier wrote that the release of the information wouldn’t likely cause significant competitive harm to retailers participating in SNAP.

The ruling comes as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the Argus Leader filed against the agency for not releasing information requested by the newspaper. Cory Myers, interim news director for Argus Leader Media, said in a statement that the effort is about taxpayers’ right to know where their money is spent.

“This is a federal program, financed by taxpayers, and the retailers who participate in the program do so voluntarily,” he said. “Beyond that, this information we’ve sought for the last five years has importance in public policy discussions about food policy and food security in one of the nation’s biggest safety net programs.”

The program, which is administered by the Agriculture Department, served more than 46 million Americans and cost $74 billion last year.

The U.S. attorney’s office in South Dakota declined to comment, while the Department of Agriculture didn’t immediately comment to The Associated Press. An attorney for the Argus Leader, Jon Arneson, said the department has 60 days to file notice of appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.