In Washington state, nearly 1 million people use SNAP benefits to keep food on the table. https://t.co/3pbJEHYa4J
— KOMO News (@komonews) October 29, 2025
SEATTLE — Washington and Oregon have joined a coalition of 25 states Tuesday that are suing the Trump administration over the suspension of SNAP benefits if the government shutdown continues.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps approximately 42 million Americans purchase food every month. The ongoing government shutdown, which entered its 28th day Tuesday, threatens to stop those benefits on Nov. 1 if no agreement is reached to reopen the government.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, along with a coalition of 22 other attorneys general and three governors, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) challenging its decision to withhold SNAP benefits.
“Shutting off SNAP benefits will cause deterioration of public health and well-being,” state officials wrote in their lawsuit. “Ultimately, the States will bear costs associated with many of these harms. The loss of SNAP benefits leads to food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition, which are associated with numerous negative health outcomes in children, such as poor concentration, decreased cognitive function, fatigue, depression, and behavioral problems.”
The states involved in the suit are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
As the government shutdown continues to drag on, the Trump administration announced last week that federal food aid would not go out on Nov. 1 after the Department of Agriculture declined to tap into roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the food stamp program flowing.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/snap-food-stamps-lawsuit-25-states-trump-administration/
States sue over Trump administration suspending food benefits during shutdown https://t.co/BXQ5oLSd3o
— I am that… (@Nievenegro) October 28, 2025