“Wake Up Republicans!” You Too Have Lost Your SNAP Benefits. There are No Party Affiliation Exemptions to this Suspension of SNAP Benefits. In Fact, Residents of Poor States Like Louisiana Stand to be the Most Adversely Impacted by the Republican’s Act.
Attorney General Aaron M. Frey joined a coalition of 22 other attorneys general and three governors today in filing a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Secretary Brooke Rollins for unlawfully suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which helps more than 40 million Americans buy food, due to the ongoing federal government shutdown according to a press release received from his office early this afternoon.
“42 million Americans, including 169,000 Mainers, are going to go hungry this Thanksgiving because the Administration is simply refusing to sue the bilions available to prevent this,” said Attorney General Frey. “It is unconscionably cruel and unlawful. My colleagues and I are going to court to insist that the Trump Administration follow the law and use the funds Congress appropriated to ensure SNAP can continue through the shutdown.”
On October 1, 2025, the new federal fiscal year began without an appropriaton by Congress to fund the federal government, creating a “government shutdown.” On October 10, USDA sent a letter to state SNAP agencies saying that if the shutdown continues, there will be unsufficent funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for the approximately 42 million individuals across the country that rely on them.
Despite USDA’s claim of insufficent funds, the agency has access to billions of dollas in SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriaed by Congress for this very purpose. Furthermore, USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during this shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP, leaving mlilions of Americans without the assistance they need to buy food. It is clear the federal government is making a deliberate, illegal and inhumane choice not to fund the crucial SNAP program.
The lapse in benefits will have dire consequences for the health and well-being of millions across the country, who rely on the programs to feed themselves and their famlies. This lapse will also put unnecessary strain on state and local governments and community organizations, as families increasingly rely on emergency services and local food pantries that are already struggling to fill a growing nutrition gap. It will affect our school systems and college and universsity communities, where food insecurity will stand in the way of educating our students. Suspending SNAP benefits will also harm the hundreds of thousands of grocers and merchants that accept SNAP payment for food prchases across the country. USDA has estimated that in a slowing economy, every $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.54 in economic activity.
In Maine, 169,000 people rely on SNAP to afford groceries each month. Nearly 3/4 of these people work and over half of them have a member of the household with a disability. SNAP appropriations make up $29 million that go directly to local economies, generating revenue for small businesses across Maine.
While the federal govenment funds and sets the monthly amount of SNAP benefits, states are responsible for administering programs in their state. Suspending SNAP benefits in this manner is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capicious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Where Congress has clearly spoken, providing that SNAP benefis should continue even during a government shudown, USDA does not have the authority to say otherwise. The coalition will also be filing a temporary restraining order later today asking the court to immediately turn benefits back on.
In the 45 page document filed in the District Cout in the District of Massachusetts, AG Frey stated that an average of 174,147 people, including approximaely 59,209 children and 40,235 elderly receive SNAP benefits. That is approximaely 12.5 % of Maine’s population. Furthermore, $296. was the average monthly SNAP benefit for Maine people.
Joining Maine in fiing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, alifornia, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The Governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania have also joined the lawsuit.
“One of the poorest state’s in the nation is Louisiana. It’s second only to Mississippi in its level of poverty. LA residents will be seriously impacted by this failure to fund SNAP. Interestingly, it has two Republican Senators; John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, a physician. Yet Louisiana did not join the lawsuit against the Trump administration. Go figure,” says this Left Wing Lunatic.
For background information on the matter, please visit two posts herein dated October 24, 2025. One from a resident of Munjoy Hill who relies on SNAP benefits and the other from Congreswoman Chellie Pingree (D).