Copyright berkshireeagle
BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 22 of her counterparts filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the USDA, alleging the agency is using the ongoing federal government shutdown to unlawfully suspend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that delivers food aid to 40 million Americans. The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, aims to maintain the flow of SNAP benefits that are at risk on Saturday. "We're asking the court to immediately turn these benefits back on to prevent any harm that will happen not only to our residents, but to our economy because SNAP recipients won't be the only ones who suffer," Campbell said during a rally organized by the Make Hunger History Coalition. "Our families and our state won't be able to close the gap, a gap of nearly $240 million every single month," she continued. "So it is past time that this administration do what's right, act to help and not to harm, our residents that rely on government." Rollins said in a TV interview that Senate Democrats have repeatedly rejected stopgap spending measures that could enable the government to reopen and prevent any disruption in the delivery of SNAP benefits. "I find it extremely rich that the elected Democrats of California, and New York, and Washington, and Oregon — and by the way, all governors that I work with in USDA on a lot of these different programs, you know the SNAP waivers and getting healthier food into SNAP, et cetera — but I find it very rich that they are suing the Trump administration because their friends on the Hill won't vote yes to keep the government open," she said on CNN. Advocates crowded the Statehouse steps and sidewalk along Beacon Street on Tuesday afternoon as finger-pointing continued surrounding the fate of SNAP benefits and the fear that young children, families and persons with disabilities could soon go hungry. They held signs with messages including, "Hunger is a choice we don't have to make," "Every Child Deserves Dinner," "You Can't Eat Bargaining Chips Feed People Not Bureaucracy," SNAP to it! Feed the hungry!" and "Hey DC. Snap Out of It!!!" Some advocates booed and yelled "shame" as speakers decried President Donald Trump's decision to not use contingency funds to cover SNAP benefits. Campbell's office contends the USDA "appears to have as much as $6 billion in SNAP contingency reserve funds" that it could dip into for emergencies like the shutdown. But Rollins said SNAP benefits in November alone will cost $9.2 billion. The shutdown impasse comes as Senate Democrats have repeatedly rejected GOP-backed stopgap spending measures as they look to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of the year under a pandemic-era law. The expiration of subsidies could drive up health insurance premiums. Campbell said the lawsuit builds upon a letter that AGs sent Rollins on Friday, which pressed the USDA to clarify why it instructed states to halt administrative work on issuing November SNAP benefits and explain contingency plans to deliver aid during the shutdown. The AGs' letter has gone unanswered, Campbell said. The USDA warned states on Oct. 10 that if the shutdown continued, the agency would have "insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation." Campbell said that notice provided "no legal rationale or no reason as to why they wouldn't tap into reserves." "Suspending SNAP benefits in this manner is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act," Campbell's office said. "Congress has clearly indicated that SNAP benefits should continue even during a government shutdown, and USDA does not have the authority to say otherwise."
