25 States Sue Trump Administration As SNAP Benefits Put On Hold During Shutdown
on Oct 29, 2025
SNAP Food Assistance Benefits Threatened As Shutdown Continues
It’s been almost one month since the government shutdown began on October 1, and Republicans and Democrats in the Senate remain at odds.
Across 13 votes to approve a Republican-backed clean, stopgap continuing resolution, which would fund the government through November 21 under the terms of the previously approved budget, each vote has failed to reach the 60-vote threshold.
On October 28, the vote was 54-45, with only three non-Republicans voting to reopen the government: Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA; Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV; and Sen. Angus King, I-ME.
Notably, Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, has been consistently opposed to approving the Republican-backed continuing resolution.
With the start of a new month approaching, the continuation of many federally-funded services, such as SNAP food stamp benefits, is uncertain.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 41.7 million Americans, on average, participated in SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, on a monthly basis in 2024.
The USDA says it does not have the funding to continue the program in the coming months until the government is reopened, making the one-month mark of the shutdown particularly significant.
On Tuesday, October 28, a lawsuit was filed by 25 states and Washington, D.C., against the United States of America in an effort to keep SNAP funded.
The Lawsuit
Nationally, 12.3% of all Americans participate in SNAP, and this government shutdown is on track to be the first time SNAP has not been funded.
“Across various previous federal government shutdowns, SNAP benefits have
never been interrupted by a lapse in appropriations,” reads the lawsuit. “Until now: earlier this month, Defendant U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suspended SNAP benefits for November.”
The longest shutdown in American history lasted 36 days, and was during President Donald Trump‘s first term as president, beginning in December of 2018 and ending in January of 2019.
The lawsuit filed by 25 states against the Trump administration alleges that the USDA has suspended funding for SNAP benefits amid the shutdown “even though, on information and belief, it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November SNAP benefits.”
According to the lawsuit, these 25 states represent “25 million individuals, in nearly 14 million households, with food assistance through SNAP.”
The 25 states which have filed this lawsuit against the Trump administration 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.
Additionally, Washington, D.C, is also one of the plaintiffs on this lawsuit.
Together, these states and D.C. argue that “suspending SNAP benefits” amid the shutdown “is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act.”
Claiming that the “suspension of SNAP benefits is irreparably harming Plaintiff States,” the 25 states and D.C. are seeking intervention from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to end “irreparable harm from USDA’s illegal action.”
Read the full lawsuit, here.
What Democrats And Republicans Are Saying About The Shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, posted on Wednesday, October 29, on X, formerly Twitter, saying, “Donald Trump is picking politics over the lives of hungry kids.”
Donald Trump is manufacturing a hunger crisis.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 29, 2025
SNAP benefits are about to run out for 42 million Americans.
And Donald Trump has ordered the USDA to NOT USE about $6 billion in emergency reserves to keep SNAP funded.
No explanation. Just cruelty.
Donald Trump is picking…
Schumer went on to write:
“Republicans are doing everything they can to kill SNAP. Trump and Senate Republicans spent their entire summer slashing SNAP by a historic $200 BILLION—to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Now they’re doubling down, using the shutdown to further devastate families and leave kids hungry.”
On the other hand, Sen. John Fetterman, D-PA, who has voted against party lines to reopen the government, posted on X that he is putting the country over politics by voting to reopen the government, protecting Americans who rely on SNAP.
Shut our government down and America loses.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) October 22, 2025
2 MILLION Pennsylvanians depend on SNAP to feed their families.
For me, it’s hungry Americans over party.
Paying our military over party.
Paying Capitol Police and federal workers over party.
I choose country over party. pic.twitter.com/JQbGkzYdw8
During a Republican press conference on October 29, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, spoke at length on the shutdown, saying, “House and Senate Democrats are openly admitting this is their shutdown, you have seen the highlight reel of all of them stumbling into admitting that, and yet they’re also incoherently claiming that the shutdown is somehow the fault of the other party.”
Watch the press conference, here:
Speaking from the floor of the Senate, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, addressed the disparity gap in votes for reopening the government, noting there are only 53 Republicans and the Senate needs 60 votes to reopen the government.
“We’ve been able to generate 55 votes, consistently now, 13 different times for reopening the government, but we need five more,” said Thune. “So the question is, are there five people over there with a backbone? Five courageous Democrats … who don’t believe that they ought to be using the American people as leverage — as leverage — to win a political battle?”
Listing air traffic controllers and TSA agents, the U.S. military, federal workers, and SNAP recipients, Thune added, “This is not a game. You’re playing with real people’s lives.”
Watch Thune’s statement on the shutdown, here:
RELATED: U.S. Government Remains In Shutdown
Competing Republican and Democrat bills to fund SNAP through the government shutdown, with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, presenting the Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025.
Hawley wrote, “Since the Democrats refuse to fund the government, I’m introducing legislation to reinstate food stamps and farm programs immediately.”
On the other hand, Senator Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, has presented the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 which aims to prevent “the Trump administration from illegally withholding available funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).”
