October 29, 2025
In Minnesota, 440,000 residents receive benefits each month, including 180,000 children and roughly 67,000 seniors.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, along with 22 other attorneys general and three governors, is filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for suspending SNAP benefits, highlighting the multi-billion-dollar contingency fund that can change everything.
The announcement was made on X, calling out the federal agency for not using the lucrative funding that can keep SNAP running as funds are scheduled to run out by Nov. 1. Ellison said he won’t allow President Donald Trump “to use hungry children as bargaining chips.”
“BREAKING: I’m suing the Trump administration to prevent them from suspending SNAP benefits. I will not allow Trump to use hungry children as bargaining chips,” he wrote on the social media platform.
“USDA has a multi-billion-dollar contingency fund intended to keep programs like SNAP running. They must use it.”
USDA sent a letter dated Oct. 10 to SNAP agencies alerting THEM that if the government shutdown continues, there will be limited funds to distribute in November 2025. However, Ellison and other state leaders argue that’s not true. “It is clear the federal government is making a deliberate, illegal, and inhumane choice not to fund the crucial SNAP program,” a spokesperson from his office said, according to KSTP 5.
The suit is joined by lawmakers — both Republican and Democratic — from states including Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Washington, and others. The governors of Kansas, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania also signed on.
The lawsuit highlights the agency’s funding lapse plan released in September 2025, stating, “Core programs of the nutrition safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)… shall continue operations during a lapse in appropriations, subject to the availability of funding.”
With that statement, Ellison and the coalition seek a temporary restraining order that would block the USDA from suspending SNAP funding while this lawsuit proceeds. The attorney general said, while he isn’t taken aback by the “cruelty and illegality of the Trump administration anymore,” the SNAP situation is a different story.
“Congress put a rainy-day fund in place so nutrition support could continue during a government shutdown, yet despite that clear Congressional intent, Trump’s USDA is refusing to tap into that fund,” he wrote.
“It is a disgrace to the presidency that Donald Trump is using hungry children throughout Minnesota as bargaining chips in the fight over his government shutdown. His actions aren’t just cruel, though; they are unlawful. It’s my job to help Minnesotans afford their lives, and today that means taking the Trump administration to court to help feed people in need.”
The SNAP lapse will affect more than 40 million Americans who depend on food stamps for nourishment. In Minnesota, 440,000 residents receive benefits each month, including 180,000 children and roughly 67,000 seniors. To help bear the load, Governor and former Vice Presidential hopeful, Tim Walz, announced food shelves in the state would receive $4 million in additional funds.
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