Trump Administration Sued Over Food-Aid Cutoff Amid Shutdown

Democrat-led states sued the Trump administration over food aid benefits set to end for tens of millions of Americans, accusing US officials of unlawfully refusing to tap alternative sources of money during the federal government shutdown.

The US Department of Agriculture announced it won’t fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting in November as the budget impasse in Congress approaches the one-month mark. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the attorneys general and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia argued the department must use nearly $6 billion in contingency funding to keep the program operational for as long as possible.

Later in the day, the state attorneys filed a request for the judge to immediately enter a temporary restraining order that blocks US officials from carrying out the directives that suspended SNAP funds and that requires them to take “every step necessary” to clear “hurdles” to making the money available in the jurisdictions that sued. According to the complaint, there are approximately 25 million program participants in those states and the District of Columbia. The judge set a hearing for Oct. 30.

The looming cutoff would deepen food insecurity for low-income households that rely on SNAP to buy groceries each month and exacerbate the strain on federal workers who aren’t being paid during the shutdown. More than 42 million people in 22 million households participate in the program, according to governement data.

The Agriculture Department has said that it can only use the contingency fund to “supplement” an existing congressional appropriation for SNAP, which means the administration can’t use it until lawmakers pass a new spending measure for the 2026 fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, Bloomberg Government reported. 

The Democratic state officials contend the administration is wrong on the legal status of the contingency money and that Congress intended to keep the program running, even during a shutdown. States are responsible for administering federal SNAP benefits to their residents. 

“Despite having the money to fund SNAP, the Trump Administration is creating needless fear, angst and harm for millions of families and their children especially as we approach the holidays,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, whose office is leading the case filed in Boston federal court, said in a statement.

The Agriculture Department released a statement in response to the lawsuit saying that Senate Democrats could “continue to hold out for the Far-Left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely” payments.

The Agriculture Department’s original shutdown plan included a section stating that contingency funds would be available to support SNAP benefits if Congress failed to pass a new spending measure. In the latest guidance, however, the department stated that the funds are “not available” for that purpose. It offered an impending natural disaster — the potential for Hurricane Melisaa, a Category 5 storm, to reach Florida — as an example of what the contingency money could be used for instead.

Finger-Pointing

Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they need support from several Democrats to clear procedural hurdles in the Senate and pass a new spending bill. Most Senate Democrats have been united in pressing for a budget deal to include a renewal of expiring health insurance subsidies. 

The imminent SNAP cutoff has escalated the pressure on both parties and led to a new round of finger-pointing. The lawsuit from state officials bolsters Senate Democrats' stance that the administration has the power to ease the pain for vulnerable families by keeping money flowing to the benefit cards that SNAP participants use to pay for food. 

Earlier in the week, the nation’s largest federal employee union called on lawmakers to agree to a short-term funding package to reopen the government. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employe, which has sued the administration a number of times this year to challenge Trump policies, wrote in an online post that it is “unacceptable” that workers are being “forced to work without pay” or furloughed “because of political disagreements in Washington.”

The Agriculture Department is running a banner on its website laying responsibility for the lapse in “critical nutrition assistance” with Democrats, calling this “an inflection point” for the opposition party. 

The case is Massachusetts v. Department of Agriculture, 25-cv-13165, US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).