MD Among States Suing Trump Administration Over Suspended SNAP Benefits

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Maryland is one of 26 states that filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday, claiming the United States Department of Agriculture is unlawfully suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the ongoing government shutdown.

Earlier this week, the USDA announced that the 693,500 Maryland residents who receive SNAP benefits, or food stamps, won't get their November benefits amid the shutdown, which will enter its fifth week on Wednesday. In a notice posted on its website, the agency said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits flowing into November.

The program helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries.

“More than 680,000 Marylanders, including 262,000 children, rely on SNAP to put food on the table,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “We’re taking the Trump administration to court because Maryland’s children and families deserve better than a federal government that chooses to let them go hungry despite having the resources to help.”

• RELATED: MD SNAP Benefits Won't Go Out In November, Officials Confirm

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 when the new federal fiscal year began without an appropriation by Congress to fund the federal government.

On Oct. 10, the USDA sent a letter to state SNAP agencies saying that if the shutdown continued, there would be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for the approximately 42 million people across the country who rely on them.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Friday that he will not use state cash reserves to pay for the benefits.

“I have been clear that there is no state that has the balance sheet to cover when the federal government says: ‘You know what? We’re just going to leave you on your own,’” Moore said, according to WYPR.

The USDA has the reserves and the legal responsibility to pay SNAP benefits, the governor said, and a $6 billion contingency fund for situations where SNAP is threatened.

In the lawsuit, attorneys general of 22 states claim that despite the USDA's claim of insufficient funds, Congress has appropriated billions of dollars in SNAP-specific contingency funds to the agency in case of a situation like the shutdown.

"Furthermore, the USDA has funded other programs during this shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP, leaving millions of Americans without the assistance they need to buy food," the lawsuit claims. "It is clear the federal government is making a deliberate, unlawful and inhumane choice not to fund the crucial SNAP program."

The lawsuit also alleges the lapse in benefits will have "dire consequences" for the economy and put additional strain on state and local governments and community organizations working to fill the nutrition gap.

"Suspending SNAP benefits will also harm the hundreds of thousands of grocers and merchants that accept SNAP payment for food purchases across the country," the lawsuit states. "The USDA has estimated that in a slowing economy, every $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity."

Joining Maryland in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Despite the lawsuit, USDA officials argued in a memo to states sent Friday that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits," according to a Washington Post report.

“It has never been used to complement benefits,” a senior administration official told the Post. “We’ve never had a lapse in appropriations like this. It’s something that has not been tested, but precedent is for times of disaster.”

During previous shutdowns, the USDA allowed states to use the contingency fund to pay for SNAP, including during the longest-ever closure, which ran from December 2018 into January 2019 in the first Trump administration, according to the Post.