Posted on 10/28/2025 6:15:00 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The Agriculture Department has $5.5 billion in backup funds for food stamp benefits but says it can’t use them.
With the nation’s primary anti-hunger program on the verge of running out of money, more than two dozen states and D.C. sued the Agriculture Department on Tuesday to force it to make billions of dollars in contingency funds available to help feed the most vulnerable individuals and families.
SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly known as food stamps, needs $9.2 billion to pay benefits in November. The Trump administration has said there’s no money for next month because of the government shutdown, which started Oct. 1 and doesn’t appear close to ending.
USDA has $5.5 billion on hand in contingency funds for the program, enough to cover more than half of the month’s costs, but it cannot pay them, a senior administration official told The Washington Post on Monday.
That money is meant to be held in case of natural disasters or other catastrophes, not used to cover for a lapse in government funding, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
But the attorneys general and governors argue in their lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, that withholding the contingency funds violates federal spending laws and that the administration should be required to disburse the money, even if it covers only partial payments for the month. Late Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit for Thursday at 11 a.m. The officials are seeking a temporary restraining order in an effort to release the contingency funds.
Around 42 million people rely on SNAP benefits each month; the average benefit is $332 per household, according to federal data.
“Millions of Americans are...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They’re only doing it for votes ..period
so not only is the Judicial Branch to control the Execute Branch, but Congress as well — perhaps the states should fund food stamps independently
There is NO Money to give them.
They sound like petulant children.
A judge will ORDER them to spend it ,LOL
The democrats are the ones that need to be sued!
They are using Hamas tactics and holding the government hostage, assassinating people and running their own terrorist army under a shadow president who isn’t even trying to hiding face anymore.
Judge Indira Talwani? You can bet she will.
Chuckles better lawyer up.
They should pony up for the benefits themselves.
Nothing is stopping the states from providing food stamp benefits.
There is no money to sue for. Sue the democrats for holding America hostage.
Curious what would happen if hard times really hit. Like the Depression. So few welfare people have any idea of how to work much less the education.
They are afraid to learn to drive.
Scary. Darwinism at its finest.
The USDA does not have 9 billion dollars on hand. 😂
The dems didn’t du jack frigging squwat about military pay. Maybe a rich democrat can front the bill.
These are the very same states which have the senators who are refusing to agree to a straight up or down vote on the budget. Maybe instead of suing, they should be putting pressure on these senators instead? Oh, that’s right, it’s all about politics. Never mind.
I just hope that when voting in the next election,many moderates, and even some reasonable Democrats (yeah, there are still a few of those) will understand that this is pure politics on the part of the Democrats. They created this mess in the hopes that it would be blamed on Trump, the way it was during his first term. What they didn’t count on was that Trump has read their book and understands them, and it is being blamed on them instead, as well it should.
The executive branch (Trump) is not involved in any way causing these states to have funding cut off. There is this thing called the separation of powers. The executive has no voice or powers over congress.
This is like suing a 7/11 because some other customer dropped their slushie and you had to get your outfit sent to the cleaners.
Sue the DemonRatz for closing the Gubbmint. Now your slugs will have to spend their money on food instead of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, tats, piercings, nails, weaves, grills, 22’ rims, stereos, etc. Welcome to the real world.
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