A group of 23 attorneys general has sued the United States Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins because federal lawmakers shut down the government, and along with it, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps more than 40 million Americans buy food.
Federal lawmakers shut down the government on Oct. 1 because of different spending priorities. Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate have voted 'no' 13 times on chances to reopen the federal government.
Reopening the federal government requires 60 votes, but Republicans can only garner 54 so far. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, has refused to reopen the government.
When asked about the shutdown, Katherine Clark, D-Mass, Democratic Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, responded.
Democrat Whip Rep. Katherine Clark: "Shutdowns are terrible. Of course there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 22, 2025
Talk about saying the quiet part out loudpic.twitter.com/ZVfPNyZuMi
2025.10.28 Complaint by scott.mcclallen
Attorney General Nessel and the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin filed the lawsuit. The governors of Kansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania have also joined.
However, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel blamed President Donald Trump's administration, which has advocated to reopen the government.
“Emergency funding exists for exactly this kind of crisis,” Nessel said. “If the reality of 42 million Americans going hungry, including 1.4 million Michiganders, isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is. It is cruel, inhumane, and illegal to hold back emergency reserves while families struggle to put food on the table."
Rollins rejected this claim in a Fox News interview.
.@SecRollins: "@USDA does NOT have the $9.2 billion that it would require" to keep SNAP benefits from running out — and unless Democrats vote to END their shutdown, food stamp recipients will not receive their benefits beginning on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/nLSqu5DQYs
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 28, 2025
The lawsuit claims that the USDA has access to billions of dollars in SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriated by Congress. USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during this shutdown but has decided that come November 1 it will not use the billions of dollars in contingency funds for SNAP, leaving millions of Americans without the assistance they need to buy food.
This is the second-longest shutdown of the federal government since 1981.
On October 10, USDA sent a letter to state SNAP agencies saying that if the shutdown continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits.
The 51-page lawsuit claims that suspending SNAP benefits will also harm the hundreds of thousands of grocers and merchants that accept SNAP payment for food purchases across the country.