Two dozen states sue White House over food stamps suspension amid shutdown

A coalition of more than two dozen states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its decision to suspend food stamps during the government shutdown.

The lawsuit, co-led by New York, California and Massachusetts, asks a federal judge to force the US Department of Agriculture to tap into emergency reserve funds to distribute food benefits to the nearly 42 million families and children who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap). The USDA has said no benefits will be issued on 1 November.

“Snap is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running,” the New York attorney general, Letitia James, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “There is no excuse for this administration to abandon families who rely on Snap, or food stamps, as a lifeline. The federal government must do its job to protect families.”

The Democratic attorneys general and three governors argue in their lawsuit that the federal government is obliged by law to maintain food benefits to the low-income households who rely on the program. They ask for a ruling by Friday on their motion.

Snap is the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program, according to the USDA, serving roughly one in eight low-income Americans at a cost of approximately $8bn per month. The USDA’s contingency fund is estimated to contain approximately $6bn.

The expiration of Snap benefits has emerged as a major pressure point in the shutdown standoff between Democrats and Republicans. Across the country, food banks and pantries, already struggling under the sharp cuts to federal programs, were bracing for a surge of hungry people if federal food aid is paused, as state officials scrambled to keep assistance flowing to recipients.

Many congressional Democrats and Republicans had called on the Trump administration to use the reserve funding to prevent widespread hunger and financial hardship on millions of American families, but it has so far declined.

“Snap benefits are about to end on Saturday,” the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said on Fox News. “We don’t have the funding to cover them.”

The USDA’s food and nutrition homepage has a banner with a strikingly partisan message falsely accusing Senate Democrats of shutting down the government to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants and trans Americans. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the notice says. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.”

“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,” the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell, said in a statement. “It is past time for the Trump administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government.”

The plaintiffs cite a memo from the agriculture department stating that contingency funds were “not legally available to cover regular benefits” during the government shutdown, which the document blamed on Democrats. The agency said it was only able to tap into the reserve funds under certain circumstances, such as natural disasters.

The memo appears to contradict the department’s lapsed funding plan, released in late September, which stated that Congress’s “evident” intent was for Snap operations to continue during a government shutdown and pointed to “multi-year contingency funds” that could be tapped in the event the closures dragged on. The plan has been removed from the department’s website.

“USDA not only has authority to use contingency funds, it has a legal duty to spend all available dollars to fund Snap benefits,” said California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, adding: “We are taking a stand because families will experience hunger and malnutrition if the Trump administration gets its way.”