Mass. leads 25 states in suing Trump to preserve food assistance for 40M Americans
Twenty-five states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to preserve food assistance benefits for roughly 42 million Americans as the federal government threatens to cut off the flow of aid due to the government shutdown.
The states argued the administration lacked the authority to suspend funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Formerly known as food stamps, the program supplements the grocery budgets for lower-income Americans to help them afford food each month.
"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 Campbell, who is co-leading the legal action, said in a statement.
"It is an inhumane and cruel decision to suspend SNAP benefits for millions of Americans," she said at a rally outside the Massachusetts State House on Tuesday after announcing the lawsuit.
Protesters rally at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Oct. 28, 2025, against the Trump administration's threat to withhold November SNAP benefits, which 42 million Americans receive, as the federal government shutdown continues. Pictured, Mass. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, center right, speaks to the crowd.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1 amid a funding dispute . In a letter to state SNAP agencies on Oct. 10, the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned that it would lack the funds to pay full SNAP benefits starting Nov. 1 if the shutdown dragged on.
However, the lawsuit argued, the USDA has billions of dollars in SNAP contingency funding appropriated by Congress to keep the program afloat in these circumstances.
In prior government shutdowns, SNAP benefits have continued, Campbell said.
The department has also used emergency funds on other programs during the shutdown, the lawsuit argued.
Nearly 60% of SNAP recipients in Massachusetts are children or seniors. More than 30% have disabilities, Campbell's office said.
"If SNAP is taken away from us, my life will fall apart. I already live at the edge," Iris Montufar, of Chelsea, said at the rally outside the State House.
Through tears, Montufar described the pain of not being able to celebrate her son's Tuesday birthday with a pizza party as he had hoped, because money was too tight.
"This is what allows us to survive with dignity," she said. "Taking away SNAP, it doesn't just affect our dinner table. It affects our health, our minds, our hearts and our future of our children."
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Boston by 22 state attorneys general and the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
States do not have the money to fund SNAP on their own, Campbell said. In Massachusetts alone, SNAP payments total $240 million every month, she said.
The government cutting off SNAP benefits is "unprecedented," said state Rep. James Arena-DeRosa, D-8th Middlesex, formerly a key Department of Agriculture official in the Northeast under the Obama administration.
Erin McAleer, president and CEO of Project Bread, said the food assistance nonprofit has been flooded with calls from people anxious over losing SNAP.
The cuts will affect one in seven Massachusetts residents. More than 330,000 of them are children, she said.
"These aren't numbers," McAleer said. "They're our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members."
In the coming weeks, families will increasingly turn to local food pantries that are already struggling to feed their communities, Campbell's office warned.
In schools and on college campuses, hungry students will lag behind their peers, said Dr. Diana Cutts, a pediatrician who cofounded Children's HealthWatch, a nonprofit headquartered at Boston Medical Center.
"SNAP is not a line item," she said. "Access to SNAP is a baby who gains weight. It is a parent who has the energy to work for their family and bond with that child."
Trump "sees this as a policy choice, not an emergency," said Arena-DeRosa.
"Tell the single mom who's now going to have to water down her juice and milk and is going to scramble to feed her kids — tell her this isn't an emergency," he said. "Tell a disabled veteran who risked life and limb for this country that you're not going to tap emergency reserve funds for SNAP and that their benefits are going to run out just a few days away from Veterans Day."
Julie LaFontaine, executive director of The Open Door food pantry in Gloucester, recalled a conversation with a veteran waiting to enter their facility.
"I asked him how he was doing," she said. "And he sighed a very heavy sigh and said, 'Sometimes there's just too much month left at the end of the money.'"
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