Democratic leaders from 25 states are suing the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to prevent the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits amid the ongoing government shutdown, per NBC News.
The states involved in the suit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
“Shutting off SNAP benefits will cause deterioration of public health and well-being,” state officials wrote in their lawsuit. “Ultimately, the States will bear costs associated with many of these harms. The loss of SNAP benefits leads to food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, which are associated with numerous negative health outcomes in children, such as poor concentration, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, depression, and behavioral problems.”
SNAP needs $9.2 billion to pay benefits in November. The Trump administration has said there’s no money for next month because of the government shutdown, which started Oct. 1 and doesn’t appear close to ending.
The USDA has $5.5 billion on hand in contingency funds for the program, enough to cover more than half of the month’s costs, but it cannot pay them. The agency blamed Democrats for failing to back a House-passed stopgap bill to fund the government, writing on its website that “the well has run dry.”
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” a spokesperson for the USDA said in response to the lawsuit. “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 WIC and SNAP allotments.”
If benefits are halted, it would mark the first time in the 60-year history of the food stamp program that payments have stopped because of a government shutdown.
The ongoing shutdown, which is in its 28th day, is now the second-longest on record.
“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, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “SNAP is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running.”
The Trump administration has attempted to ramp up the pressure on Democrats to reopen the government, announcing cancellations of federal funding for programs in blue states and issuing layoff-notices to thousands of federal workers.