Kansas SNAP funding lost $10.4 million at the hands of Gov. Laura Kelly — at least, that’s what Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach claimed, filing a lawsuit against the Kelly administration Sept. 8.

On Sep. 30, the Kelly administration issued press releases debunking Kobach’s false claims, the biggest claim being the loss of funding for families that rely on the SNAP program. 

“After the USDA rejected the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Corrective Action Proposal, DCF filed an appeal with the USDA,” the Kelly administration wrote. “The filing of that appeal immediately prevented the USDA from withholding the $10.4 million. The State of Kansas has not lost any SNAP administrative funding, and the program continues to operate as usual.”

Furthermore, the Kelly administration revealed that, before conducting any prior research or communicating with their administration directly, Kobach made unnecessary allegations regarding the funding. Not only did these allegations cause panic among Kansas SNAP recipients and raise concerns about the status of their SNAP benefits, but Gov. Kelly was also rapidly and repeatedly blamed without providing any substantial proof that supported these claims. 

“Had the Attorney General met with my office prior to filing his lawsuit, as my office had requested, we could have explained the issue without having to go through the time and expense of the court,” Gov. Kelly said in the press release. 

In addition, the reasoning behind the Kelly administration’s refusal to submit SNAP recipients’ information goes well beyond Kobach’s claim that Gov. Laura Kelly was “making a show of resistance to the Trump administration,” a claim never made by anyone in the Kelly administration. 

Both the DCF secretary, Laura Howard and Gov. Kelly have previously explained that neither of them trusts President Donald Trump’s executive order, which requires states to provide more information about SNAP recipients to prevent fraud.  

“The release of information isn’t about detecting fraud because those procedures are already in place,” Howard said in an interview with the Kansas Reflector.

Considering that fraud detection measures were already established within the system, Gov. Kelly concluded that complying with the state’s request to provide the additional information about SNAP recipients was a potential violation of their privacy. Despite this reasoning, Kobach described the refusal as a “political demonstration,” without presenting unbiased proof of that claim. 

The Kelly administration was among several parties that were suspicious about the Trump administration’s true intentions behind seeking more personal information relating to SNAP recipients. 

U.S. District Judge of California Maxine Chesney ruled against allowing the federal agency to move forward with this new policy. This decision followed concerns from several states that the data in question could compromise applicants’ sensitive information, such as income, family data and even immigration status, to potentially aid mass deportations. Although the Kelly administration did not take part in this lawsuit, their reasons for refusing to provide the information aligned with those of the 21 states involved in the lawsuit.

Gov. Kelly took to social media to clear the air about the “attacks” against her, which her administration described to be “childish” and “idiotic.”

“As public officials, we should be bigger than that and better than that,” Gov. Kelly said on X. “Kansans face serious challenges — many are just trying to make ends meet — and they expect us to be focused on their problems, not wasting time on idiotic memes … I’d like to invite the Republican officials who I know also disdain these types of silly attacks to join me in trying to restore a basic sense of civility to our politics.”

Governor Laura Kelly could not be reached for comment.