A coalition of Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to avert what would be a historic lapse in food aid for millions of Americans that is set to begin Nov. 1 amid an ongoing government shutdown.
The lawsuit represents a critical challenge to the USDA’s decision not to use $6 billion in contingency funds to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, which costs about $8 billion monthly.
At stake is whether more than 41 million low-income Americans will receive their November benefits, which would mark the first time payments have lapsed due to a government shutdown in the program’s 60-year history.
“The federal government has the money to continue funding SNAP benefits — they’re choosing to harm millions of families across the country already struggling to make ends meet,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a social media post about the lawsuit filed in Boston federal court by attorneys general and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.
She set a hearing for Thursday on whether to issue a temporary restraining order forcing the USDA to use available contingency funds for November SNAP benefits.
The USDA’s shutdown plan had included the potential use of contingency funds for SNAP, but on Saturday, the department updated its website to say no benefits would be issued on Nov. 1 as scheduled, stating “the well has run dry.”
The lawsuit argues the suspension of benefits is arbitrary and being carried out in violation of the law and regulations governing the program, which requires that “assistance under this program shall be furnished to all eligible households.”
The lawsuit, led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Minnesota, says the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 makes clear that the contingency funds should be used when necessary to carry out program operations.
“Millions of Americans are about to go hungry because the federal government has chosen to withhold food assistance it is legally obligated to provide,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the USDA in a statement said Senate Democrats are approaching an inflection point where they either “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 WIC and SNAP allotments.”
SNAP benefits are available to Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line, or $1,632 a month for a one-person household, or $2,215 for a two-person household in many areas.
SNAP benefits are paid out monthly, although the exact date payments are distributed varies among states, which are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the benefits.
The shutdown also threatens benefits for nearly 7 million participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)
