With the deadline for funding SNAP benefits approaching, a group of attorneys general and governors has sued the Trump administration, saying the widely used food assistance program was suspended unlawfully.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins says the funds were suspended despite there being contingency funds available to pay out full SNAP benefits in November for all 42 million people who use them.
It’s the latest legal battle amid the ongoing government shutdown. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Boston, by
“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,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. ”It is past time for the Trump Administration to act to help, rather than harm, those who rely on our government.”
The contingency fund has roughly $5 billion — enough to pay the benefits for more than half a month, according to the lawsuit.
About 1 in 8 Americans use SNAP to help buy groceries. Beneficiaries, food banks and states have been scrambling to figure out how to make sure they’ll have access to food even if the program is paused.
The full list of plaintiff states is Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Washington, D.C., was also part of the lawsuit, and the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania filed suit as well.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/J6ksp80
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