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Arguing that the Trump administration is using the federal shutdown as a false pretext to illegally halt a key food assistance program, Oregon joined about two dozen other states and governors on Tuesday in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
With a pause in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for tens of millions of people set to take effect Nov. 1, the blame game is in full swing: The Trump administration blames Democrats for holding out with their demands, continuing the ongoing federal shutdown; and states like Oregon blame the Trump administration for failing to fund the program with money they argue has been made available for circumstances like these.
“This isn’t complicated—people need to eat,” said Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield in a statement announcing the suit. “If these benefits stop, thousands of Oregonians will be left wondering how to put food on the table. The USDA has the authority and the money to keep SNAP running, and refusing to do so is both illegal and deeply cruel.”
The Trump administration tells another story. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” it says in a banner on its website, as well as a message posted in massive font on its media contact page. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
In fact, the shutdown centers on rising health care costs—and demands from congressional Democrats that any funding plan includes a compromise on federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act private health insurance plans, which are set to expire. Numerous journalists who cover Congress have reported this, including from conservative outlets like Fox News.
According to the lawsuit Oregon is participating in, which is led by Massachusetts, SNAP benefits have never been delayed in the decades since the program’s inception, including during past shutdowns. The longest U.S. government shutdown, ending in 2019, lasted 35 days—a figure the current shutdown is now about a week shy of surpassing.
Billions of dollars in contingency funds passed by Congress remain available for the SNAP program, the plaintiffs argue, but the Trump administration is declining to use the money for SNAP, even as it repurposes agency funds to other ends.
“Because of the U.S Department of Agriculture’s actions,” the states allege, “SNAP benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program’s inception. Worse still,” they add, the agency suspended SNAP benefits “even though it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November SNAP benefits.”
Funded largely by the federal government and administered by states, SNAP provides billions of dollars each month to low-income Americans, in the form of payment cards loaded with benefits to buy food. About 1 in 6 Oregonians, and about 1 in 5 residents of Multnomah County, receive SNAP benefits.
Regular SNAP benefits are usually issued during the first nine days of each month, but the Oregon Department of Human Services warns that, if the shutdown continues into November, no new SNAP benefits can be issued until the federal government reopens. (Notably, SNAP benefits do not expire immediately, and the agency says beneficiaries can generally still use money on a card that carried over from October.)
