25 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court, seeking to block the Donald Trump administration from suspending food aid payments starting November 1. The lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the agency would not use $6 billion from the reserve fund to finance the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. This is reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
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The federal government has the money to continue funding SNAP aid – they chose to harm millions of families across the country who are already struggling to make ends meet.
The lawsuit states that the refusal to pay violates the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which requires aid to be provided to all eligible households and for reserve funds to be used when needed. The plaintiffs argue that the non-payment would be the first such instance in SNAP's 60-year history.
The states demand that the court order the USDA to use reserve funds for November payments so that millions of American families are not left without food aid.
Millions of Americans are about to start starving because the federal government has decided to suspend food aid that it is legally obligated to provide.
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture responded by saying that Senate Democrats should "rally behind the far-left wing of the party, or reopen the government so that mothers, infants, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely assistance through the WIC and SNAP programs."
More than 41 million low-income Americans receive SNAP benefits. The government shutdown also threatens benefits for about 7 million WIC participants. The case will be heard by federal judge Indira Talwani.