States sue over Trump administration suspending food benefits during shutdown

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop President Donald Trump's administration from suspending food aid benefits starting on November 1 amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.

Attorneys general and governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in Boston federal court after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would not use $6 billion in contingency funds to pay for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps.

"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.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress have traded blame for the shutdown and for the risk that SNAP benefits, which provide food assistance to more than 41 million low-income Americans, could lapse in November.

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 November 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 says the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 makes clear that the contingency funds should be used when necessary to carry out program operations.

The plaintiffs, who are led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Minnesota, say a failure by the federal government to issue monthly food assistance payments as a result of a lapse in appropriations would mark a first in the SNAP program's 60-year history.

The states say they will seek to have a judge issue a temporary restraining order forcing the USDA to use available contingency funds for November SNAP benefits and ensure that millions of families do not lose access to food assistance in the coming days.

"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.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Idira Talwani, who was appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture in a statement said Senate Democrats are appointing 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 for 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 on a monthly basis, though 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 and Chizu Nomiyama)