Attn: James C. Miller, Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
United States Department of Agriculture
1320 Braddock Place, 5th floor
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Re: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program: Rescission of Changes to Civil Rights Data Collection Methods,
90 F.R. 20825 (RIN 0584-AF19, May 16, 2025)
Dear Mr. Miller:
I am writing on behalf of New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) proposal to rescind the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Revision of Civil Rights Data Collection Methods final rule, which ended the practice of visual observations to determine SNAP participants’ race or ethnicity. I appreciate the opportunity to provide comments expressing our concerns with this change in data collection methods.
NJPP strongly disagrees with the proposed rescission, which would reinstate the allowance of visual observation as a program standard for the collection of race and ethnicity data of participants. This would be a step backward for the reliability and accuracy of data and would threaten the fair administration of SNAP. We recommend that the rule remain in place to continue improved data collection practices, maintain the accuracy of program analyses, and respect the civil rights of participants.
The quality of data significantly impacts its usefulness, including the potential scope and accuracy of analyses that can be produced. In the case of visual observation of race, studies have shown that conclusions using this practice are often inaccurate when compared with self-reported data by the person whose race is being evaluated, if the goal is to determine the individual’s identity, family background, and lived experience.[i] Additionally, the perceptions of the interviewers or administrators visually observing race can vary, resulting in errors that do not follow predictable patterns or allow for reliable adjustments when evaluating the data. This makes it more difficult to produce program evaluations with high levels of confidence in their accuracy.[ii]
In addition to the accuracy of data collected, visual observation of race and ethnicity as a practice can threaten the process of the interview itself. Establishing a standard practice of asking an interviewer to potentially report the race or ethnicity of an interviewee primes the interviewer to think about and evaluate the characteristics of the participant throughout the interview. This can lead to an increase in biases within the interviewer’s approach and harm their rapport with the interviewee.
By diminishing the reliability and accuracy of demographic variables like race and ethnicity, any analyses that look to determine whether SNAP continues to be administered in ways that comply with federal civil rights requirements will be limited in their ability to confidently produce accurate results. Although allowing the interviewer to report the suspected race or ethnicity of a participant may lead to fewer unreported results and increase the number of “complete” questionnaire responses, the filling in of these gaps with unreliable data further reduces the data’s utility and harms program administration and outcomes.[iii] Researchers, program analysts, and lawyers would face greater difficulties reporting on the quality of the program’s administration and its legal standing with regard to civil rights requirements.
If officials are interested in filling gaps in the program data reported and wish to develop methods of producing more complete files, they must recognize that the most reliable and accurate data will come from the participant, who knows their family and individual background and identification. In order to encourage participants to answer this sensitive question more often, officials should look to methods of building trust between caseworkers and participants, improve and promote the security of the data provided, as well as adjust the structure of the questionnaire and potential answers to best allow for the participant to answer fully and accurately.[iv]
Due to the concerns outlined above, NJPP opposes the proposed rescission of this rule and hopes that the Department will consider other methods of filling data gaps and improving the overall quality of program evaluations.
Sincerely,
Brittany Holom-Trundy
Senior Policy Analyst
New Jersey Policy Perspective
End Notes
[i] Note that if the goal of a study is to record the race or ethnicity that external people may observe — thus, studying biases in observations — then the reporting of a visual observation of race and ethnicity would be valid in terms of what it seeks to capture. However, with program data, the aim is generally to better administer the program and ensure that there are no unintended or intended exclusions of communities based on their demographic characteristics.
[ii] This is not just a challenge for visual observation of race and ethnicity, but is also a broader challenge for any externally imposed completion of missing race and ethnicity data. For a discussion of statistical challenges, see Megan Randall, Alena Stern, and Yipeng Su (2021), “Five Ethical Risks to Consider Before Filling Missing Race and Ethnicity Data,” Urban Institute,
[iii] The USDA’s Civil Rights Impact Analysis for the original rule recognized that the removal of visual observation as standard practice would increase the accuracy of its data: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-13058/p-35. Without additional study results showing outcomes to the contrary, the reinstatement of the practice remains unsupported and should be considered to most likely decrease accuracy.
[iv] The ability of participants to fully answer the question in a way that they identify as accurate can significantly impact the response rates and the validity of the data. See, for example: Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Cameron P. Jones, Tiffany S. Neman, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards (2024), “Questioning Identity: How a Diverse Set of Respondents Answer Standard Questions About Ethnicity and Race.” Field Methods 36, no. 2: 113-130. For an in-depth discussion of data collection on race and ethnicity, see Sharghi, Sima, Shokoufeh Khalatbari, Amy Laird, Jodi Lapidus, Felicity T. Enders, Jareen Meinzen-Derr, Amanda L. Tapia, and Jody D. Ciolino. “Race, ethnicity, and considerations for data collection and analysis in research studies.” Journal of Clinical and Translational Science 8, no. 1 (2024): e182.
