States Sue Over Trump Administration Suspending Food Benefits During Shutdown

Source: USA Today/Reuters

Oct. 28, 2025, at 12:11 p.m.


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.

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 that the suspension of benefits is avoidable, arbitrary and is being carried out in violation of the Food and Nutrition Act, which requires that “assistance under this program shall be furnished to all eligible households." 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.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-10-28/states-sue-over-trump-administration-suspending-food-benefits-during-shutdown