WASHINGTON — Arizona and 24 other states sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of illegally freezing food aid for 42 million Americans during the government shutdown.

“This suspension of benefits doesn’t just take food off of family’s tables,” state Attorney General Kris Mayes said at a news conference in Phoenix. “It sucks a huge amount of money out of Arizona’s economy and it hurts everyone along the food supply chain.” 

The USDA told states Friday that the funds would run out eight days later, on November 1, despite a plan issued before the shutdown started Sept. 30 stating it would keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program running. 

The 51-page complaint filed in federal court in Massachusetts argues that the USDA is unlawfully cutting off funds for SNAP, which is often referred to as food stamps.

The states say the department can and should tap its $6 billion contingency reserve to keep benefits flowing. 

One in eight Americans rely on the program. Arizona follows the national average. In fiscal year 2024, the state issued just over $2 billion in SNAP benefits for 950,978 residents, including 401,455 children and 135,677 seniors, according to the lawsuit.

“SNAP benefits have never been interrupted by a lapse in appropriations,” the lawsuit says. 

The Trump administration defended its decision to let SNAP come to a halt for the first time during a shutdown, blaming Democrats for the impending crisis for blocking the Republican budget.

Acknowledging that 42 million Americans “face hunger November 1 without SNAP funding,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X that “Democrats are running out of excuses. OPEN. THE. GOVERNMENT.”

States typically load SNAP funds onto recipients’ debit cards on the first day of the month. With that deadline four days away, the coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia asked the court to order the USDA to immediately resume payments.

“Approved participants … will be unable to collect November benefits until federal funding is released to states,” the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which administers the program in the state, says on its website.

The USDA’s shutdown plan cited multi-year contingency funds “available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.” Its Friday memo to states reversed that stance, asserting that contingency reserves are “not legally available” because Congress has yet to provide funding for the new fiscal year. 

“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” the USDA said in a statement. “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.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans defend the refusal to tap emergency funds, given that the funding lapsed between fiscal years, not in the middle of one.

The Democratic attorneys general and governors who signed onto the lawsuit disagree. 

They accuse the administration of going out of its way to find a legal pretext to halt SNAP payments, to ramp up pressure in the shutdown standoff.

Some states have announced that they will dip into state coffers to provide SNAP benefits in November.

On Friday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said she won’t do that.

 “I don’t have a pot of money just sitting there to fill these gaps,” she told reporters during an appearance in Phoenix.

Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego joined other Democratic senators in pressing Rollins last week to release the contingency funds, warning that “Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries and cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance.” 

Mayes, implicitly criticizing the governor, pointed to the state’s $1.6 billion “rainy day fund” and said she is “underwhelmed” by the state response to an impending food security crisis. 

Hobbs, she said, should deploy the National Guard to assist food banks, a move California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made. Mayes also said the governor should call a special session so the Legislature can authorize funding to keep SNAP going as the lawsuit plays out. 

“We need to be doing everything that we can do, in addition to this lawsuit, to get ready for the tsunami of cruelty and chaos that is coming at our families in just a few days,” Mayes said.

Amy Schwabenlender, CEO of Keys for Change, which addresses homelessness in Maricopa County, said Monday that she’s worried that if food aid is frozen, people will be forced to choose between housing and hunger.

“We know people need SNAP” and other programs, she said, “and when one of those things are cut, it makes it more challenging,” adding that the uncertainty is maddening. “There’s so much need.”

On a corner near the Key Campus, an unhoused woman, Brandy Baker, said she gets about $60 a month through SNAP and it’s not nearly enough. If she loses that?

“I won’t have money for food,” she said.

The states’ lawsuit asserts that besides the contingency funds, the USDA could tap $23 billion in “Section 32” agricultural revenues. 

In its memo to states Friday, the department said it can’t tap other accounts because that “would pull away funding for school meals and infant formula.” It also said it needs reserves in case of disasters such as Hurricane Melissa, the massive storm that hit Jamaica on Tuesday. 

Mayes and other attorneys general called that argument a pretext. “They offer no evidence that contingency funds are not available,” the lawsuit says.

Cronkite News reporter Edward Nieman in Phoenix contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.