A woman holds a sign reading “Protect SNAP,” as food aid benefits will be suspended starting November 1 amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, during “A Rally for SNAP” on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., October 28, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
A group of more than two dozen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to maintain funding of so-called SNAP benefits during the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The suit was filed four days after the Trump administration said it would not use $6 billion in Congressionally-appropriated emergency funding to maintain benefits during the shutdown from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps to more than 40 million Americans.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which blames Senate Democrats for not ending the shutdown, has said that SNAP benefits will cease on Saturday, the lawsuit noted.
“Because of USDA’s actions, SNAP benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program’s inception,” the suit says.
“Suspending SNAP benefits in these circumstances is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act,” the states said in the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, one of the states in the case, at a press conference accused the Trump administration of “playing fast and loose with people eating. Can you imagine that?”
“The money is there! Let us not let them get away with saying that they can’t do it,” DeLauro said. “Their political will isn’t there to feed the people who rely on the SNAP program, which is the most effective anti-hunger program in the United States of America.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, in a statement on the suit, said, “Millions of Americans are about to go hungry because the federal government has chosen to withhold food assistance it is legally obligated to provide.
“SNAP is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running,” James said. “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.”
A USDA spokesperson, asked for comment on the suit, said, “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats.”
“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.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, in an interview on Tuesday on Fox News shortly after the suit was filed, was asked if funding for SNAP had “truly run dry.”
“100% unequivocally, USDA does not have the $9.2 billion that it would require,” Rollins answered.
“There’s not just pots of $9.2 billion sitting around. And what’s particularly rich about New York saying that, or California, or any of these other blue states that have filed the lawsuit to say, ‘Oh no, we’re going to go, you guys, USDA, go find the money,’ ” Rollins said.
“It’s their very friends, partners, colleagues, Democrat elected officials, that continue to vote over and over again to keep the government closed,” Rollins said.
“Again, shame on them. I cannot begin to understand what they’re thinking.”
There is no current end in sight for the government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1.
On Tuesday, a Republican-backed House bill that would fund the government temporarily failed to win approval in the Senate for the 13th time.
Nearly all Senate Democrats have refused to vote for the Republican bill because it does not extend enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans.
The enhanced tax credits currently used by about 20 million Americans to reduce the cost of health plans purchased on Obamacare marketplaces are due to expire at the end of the year.