The Agriculture Department escalated a simmering political battle on Tuesday, announcing that it will begin withholding federal funding for food stamps in more than 20 Democratic-led states that have refused to turn over sensitive personal data on millions of residents. The move sets up a full-blown showdown over privacy, power and the future of a program that feeds more than 42 million people.

The clash began in May, when the Trump administration demanded access to detailed information on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients — including Social Security numbers, birth dates and home addresses. Twenty-eight states, almost all Republican-controlled, have complied. A coalition of blue states, along with Washington, D.C., has not.

Those states argue the federal request violates privacy law and could open the door to data being repurposed for unrelated policies, such as immigration enforcement. The administration insists the records are needed to root out fraud, waste and abuse within SNAP.

At a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins delivered the administration’s sharpest warning yet. “As of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply,” she said, framing the standoff as a fight to protect taxpayers.

But the threat comes amid weeks of confusion. A government shutdown had already plunged the nation’s largest anti-hunger program into uncertainty, and sweeping changes to SNAP were tucked inside the president’s recent policy law. Now the states that refused the data request face the possibility of losing the federal dollars that keep their food assistance operations alive.

The Agriculture Department has offered few specifics about how or when benefits might be halted. In a written statement, officials said only that “Democrat states” received another request for data and will get formal notice that administrative funds will be pulled if they do not comply.

If the threat materializes, more than 20 million beneficiaries could be caught in the crossfire. Whether the department can follow through, however, remains unclear. A federal judge in California issued an injunction in September blocking the administration from cutting off SNAP money. That ruling was strengthened in October, when the judge barred any punishment for failing to provide the data.

The court battle went dormant during the shutdown, but the fight is far from over. The administration has until mid-December to appeal the injunction. Meanwhile, another USDA letter went out in late November, giving states until Dec. 8 to respond.

For now, SNAP recipients in affected states sit in limbo, waiting to learn whether political brinkmanship will threaten one of the most fundamental safety-net programs in the country.