If you get Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment or disaster aid, your state has a file on you. It has your name, your address, your benefits and your doctor's bills.

On Wednesday, September 16, 2026, the House voted 217 to 207 to pass a bill that orders states to hand those files to the U.S. attorney general whenever he asks in writing. It's called the PROOF Act. Republicans voted 210 to 1 for it. Democrats voted 206 to 6 against it.

185 of the members who voted yes have a report card on this site — 184 Republicans, plus Kevin Kiley of California, whom the House clerk lists as an independent. Their names are at the bottom of this post. Five more members who voted yes also have report cards here but are no longer running: Chuck Edwards, Andy Ogles, John Rose, David Schweikert and Ralph Norman.

What the bill says

The bill is short. We read the whole thing. Here's what it does:

• The head of a state "shall, upon receipt of a written request from the Attorney General, provide such information as the Attorney General may require" to investigate or prosecute "alleged fraud."
• It covers Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), TANF (cash help for poor families) and unemployment. It also covers FEMA disaster aid, rental assistance, school relief money, rural broadband grants, community development grants and several COVID programs.
• Then comes the catch-all: "any other program" that sends money to states and that the attorney general decides is "vulnerable to fraud."
• The records it lists are identity checks, benefit payment logs, doctors' and providers' billing records, and demographic information "directly related to an active fraud investigation." Then comes a second catch-all: "any other information, as determined appropriate by the Attorney General."

Read what's missing. There is no judge. No warrant, no subpoena, no court order. Nothing in the bill says a request has to name a suspect. All the bill asks of the attorney general is a written request that says it's for a fraud case.

The bill does promise privacy. It says the data has to follow the Privacy Act and health privacy rules, be encrypted, be seen only by "authorized personnel," and be used only for fraud cases. It also says the data gets destroyed once "the relevant legal proceedings or investigation" ends. But the person who decides what counts as an investigation, and when it's over, is the same person asking for the data.

Who gets to ask

The attorney general today is Todd Blanche. The Senate confirmed him on August 8.

Before he ran the Justice Department, Blanche was Donald Trump's personal lawyer. According to TIME, he was Trump's lead defense attorney in the hush-money trial, and he also defended Trump in the two federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

This bill hands him the key to the benefit records of every state in the country.

Courts already said no

The Trump administration has been trying to get this data for more than a year, and courts have pushed back.

A Trump executive order told federal agencies to get "unfettered access" to data from state programs that take federal money. The Agriculture Department then demanded food stamp records from the states: names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses and household finances. It threatened to cut states' funding if they refused, including up to $338 million a quarter from California.

Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., sued. In February, a federal judge blocked the funding cuts. The judge pointed to the food stamp law itself, which says states share records "subject to data and security protocols agreed to by the State agency and Secretary." In other words, the states get a say.

Then the Justice Department went after states one at a time. In June, it sued Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota for five years of food stamp applicant data. "These four states are thwarting USDA's efforts," Blanche said.

The PROOF Act doesn't ask states to agree to anything. It says they "shall" provide what the attorney general "may require."

We've seen where this data goes

Medicaid data has already been used for things that have nothing to do with fraud.

A federal court let the Department of Health and Human Services share some basic Medicaid information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but it drew a line. ICE could get addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and immigration status, and it was barred from collecting information on citizens and lawful permanent residents.

Then, as Stateline reported, 22 states went back to court this spring. They said HHS had admitted to sharing with ICE "a large and complex" set of data on Medicaid recipients, more than the court allowed.

The PROOF Act limits the data to fraud cases. The court order limited the Medicaid data too.

Six days, no hearing, no changes

Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey introduced the bill on September 10. The House passed it six days later.

It never went through a committee. The House Rules Committee's report set aside the House rule that blocks a bill from coming to the floor before a committee has reported it. It also brought the bill up under a closed rule, which means no member was allowed to offer a single amendment. Not one change to "any other information," not one line requiring a judge.

The push came from the top. According to the Daily Caller, Vice President JD Vance called data-sharing "the most important" thing Congress could do on fraud. He complained about "the black box that exists around certain state programs."

Nobody's in favor of fraud. Programs that feed kids and pay for nursing homes should be protected from people who steal from them. But every state already has a Medicaid fraud control unit that investigates and prosecutes Medicaid fraud under federal oversight, with a federal grant paying part of the cost. What this bill adds is the power to demand whatever records he decides he needs, from any state, on his word alone. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican who voted no.

The 185 who voted yes

Every one of these members has a report card on this site, and every one of them is recorded on the official House roll call voting yes on the PROOF Act:

Alabama — Robert Aderholt, Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers, Dale Strong

Alaska — Nick Begich

Arizona — Juan Ciscomani, Eli Crane, Paul Gosar, Abraham Hamadeh

Arkansas — Rick Crawford, French Hill, Bruce Westerman

California — Ken Calvert, Vince Fong, James Gallagher, Kevin Kiley, Young Kim, Tom McClintock, Jay Obernolte, David Valadao

Colorado — Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans, Jeff Hurd

Florida — Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Kat Cammack, Mario Diaz-Balart, Byron Donalds, Randy Fine, Scott Franklin, Carlos Gimenez, Mike Haridopolos, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Jimmy Patronis, John Rutherford, Greg Steube

Georgia — Rick Allen, Andrew Clyde, Mike Collins, Clay Fuller, Brian Jack, Rich McCormick, Austin Scott

Idaho — Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson

Illinois — Mike Bost, Darin LaHood, Mary Miller

Indiana — Jim Baird, Erin Houchin, Mark Messmer, Jefferson Shreve, Victoria Spartz, Marlin Stutzman, Rudy Yakym

Iowa — Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn

Kansas — Ron Estes, Tracey Mann, Derek Schmidt

Kentucky — Andy Barr, James Comer, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers

Louisiana — Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Julia Letlow, Steve Scalise

Maryland — Andy Harris

Michigan — Tom Barrett, Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, Lisa McClain, John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg

Minnesota — Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber

Mississippi — Mike Ezell, Michael Guest, Trent Kelly

Missouri — Mark Alford, Eric Burlison, Bob Onder, Jason Smith, Ann Wagner

Montana — Troy Downing

Nebraska — Mike Flood, Adrian Smith

New Jersey — Tom Kean Jr., Chris Smith, Jeff Van Drew

New York — Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota, Nick Langworthy, Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, Claudia Tenney

North Carolina — Virginia Foxx, Pat Harrigan, Mark Harris, Richard Hudson, Brad Knott, Addison McDowell, Tim Moore, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer

North Dakota — Julie Fedorchak

Ohio — Troy Balderson, Mike Carey, Warren Davidson, Jim Jordan, David Joyce, Bob Latta, Max Miller, Michael Rulli, David Taylor, Mike Turner

Oklahoma — Stephanie Bice, Josh Brecheen, Tom Cole, Kevin Hern, Frank Lucas

Oregon — Cliff Bentz

Pennsylvania — Rob Bresnahan, Brian Fitzpatrick, John Joyce, Mike Kelly, Ryan Mackenzie, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler, Lloyd Smucker, Glenn Thompson

South Carolina — Sheri Biggs, Russell Fry, William Timmons, Joe Wilson

Tennessee — Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Diana Harshbarger, David Kustoff, Matt Van Epps

Texas — Brian Babin, John Carter, Michael Cloud, Monica De La Cruz, Jake Ellzey, Pat Fallon, Brandon Gill, Craig Goldman, Lance Gooden, Ronny Jackson, Nathaniel Moran, August Pfluger, Keith Self, Pete Sessions, Beth Van Duyne, Randy Weber, Roger Williams

Utah — Mike Kennedy, Celeste Maloy, Blake Moore

Virginia — Ben Cline, Morgan Griffith, Jen Kiggans, John McGuire, Rob Wittman

Washington — Michael Baumgartner

West Virginia — Carol Miller, Riley Moore

Wisconsin — Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Tony Wied

Wyoming — Harriet Hageman

What the roll call shows

On September 16, 2026, the House voted 217 to 207 to order states to turn over Medicaid, food stamp and other benefit records to the attorney general on his written request, with no judge involved. Republicans voted 210 to 1 for it. 185 of the members who voted yes have report cards on this site.

Sources

• House Roll Call 310: H.R. 10326, the PROOF Act, September 16, 2026 (passed 217–207)
• H.R. 10326, as introduced September 10, 2026 (GovInfo)
• House Report 119-825 (Rules Committee report: closed rule, committee-report requirement waived)
• Senate Roll Call 230: confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General, August 8, 2026
• TIME: Who Is Todd Blanche, Trump's Former Lawyer and the New Acting Attorney General?
• JURIST: US federal court blocks SNAP funding cuts over states' refusal to share recipient data
• U.S. Department of Justice: Justice Department Sues States for Failing to Provide SNAP Data to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Stateline, via Government Executive: States say ICE pulled Medicaid data despite court order
• The Daily Caller: House To Tackle Fraud When It Returns With Slate Of Bills