On October 28, 2025, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes led a coalition of attorneys general and governors representing 25 states and the District of Columbia in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its unlawful plan to suspend benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the government shutdown. In every previous government shutdown, low-income families have been able to rely on continued SNAP benefits to keep food on their tables. Earlier this month, however, Trump’s USDA announced plans to suspend this critical support for millions of families and children across the country. 

For more than 60 years, SNAP has been the most important tool that low-income Americans can count on to fight hunger and malnutrition. More than 41 million Americans, 62% of whom are families with children, receive support from SNAP every month. The states participating in the lawsuit represent more than half of all SNAP recipients, with 25 million individuals and nearly 14 million households relying on the support to make ends meet.  

USDA has access to both a contingency fund of $6 billion available for use specifically for SNAP, as well as more than $20 billion in other congressionally appropriated funds that the agency already used to fund the Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) program during the government shutdown. At the end of September, USDA announced plans to continue funding SNAP operations using contingency funds should a government shutdown occur. Ten days later, however, USDA changed course and alerted states that it may delay November transfers, and then on October 24, 2025, the USDA announced that it was suspending all November 2025 benefit allocations affective November 1, until a congressional appropriations bill was enacted. The letter asserted without legal basis that the contingency funds could not be used to fund SNAP benefits.   

The suit argues that USDA’s refusal to use its contingency funds to continue to provide SNAP benefits to more than 41 million eligible Americans violates both the SNAP Act as well as the Administrative Procedure Act and represents an arbitrary and capricious change in policy. The states asked the court to find the USDA’s actions unlawful, require the administration to withdraw its directive withholding SNAP benefit issuance files, and mandate that USDA restore SNAP benefits.   

On October 31, 2025, the trial court judge agreed with the state plaintiffs that the law requires the USDA to continue funding SNAP and directed USDA to tell the court by November 3, 2025, whether the government would authorize reduced benefits for November using the funds specifically appropriated for SNAP, or would instead use additional discretionary funding reserves to restore full benefits.  

More than one million people in Massachusetts rely on SNAP to put food on the table. 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. It is past time for the Trump Administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government. Attorney General Andrea Campbell