Connecticut was among two dozen plaintiffs to sue the Trump administration Tuesday, asking a federal judge to order the administration to use $6 billion in available contingency funds to continue paying SNAP food assistance benefits during the partial shutdown of the federal government.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, three governors and 22 attorneys general from blue states said the Trump administration’s suspension of SNAP ignores congressional directives and is “contrary to law, arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”
Unless the U.S. Department of Agriculture relents, or the court intercedes, the program that provides $72 million in monthly benefits to more than 360,000 recipients in Connecticut will be suspended Saturday. The lawsuit says the unprecedented suspension of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, was a choice, not a necessity.
“They are weaponizing hunger to serve their political priorities. It is so wrong, unconscionable,” Attorney General William Tong said. “It is wrong to starve people so you can bring your political opponents to heel. It is wrong to starve people into submission, and that is what this president is doing.”
Tong, a Democrat, has now sued the Trump administration 38 times on behalf of Connecticut since the president returned to office in January and repeatedly asserted the ability to remake federal government and withhold spending, often at variance with congressional appropriations.
Quoting the nonpartisan watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, the latest lawsuit said, “SNAP is considered an appropriated entitlement, meaning that the government is legally required to make payments to those who meet the program requirements.”
On its web site, the USDA disagreed.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01,” the USDA statement read.
The statement repeated the false assertion that the Democrats’ insistence on a budget deal that would continue tax credits that lower premiums for health policies under the Affordable Care Act is aimed at benefitting “illegal aliens.”
Immigrants in the country without legal status are barred from health coverage under the ACA.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, joined Tong at the press conference announcing the lawsuit, where she underscored that the administration has the legal authority to keep alive a program that provides food to the working poor and struggling seniors.
“It is laughable to me that the president is resting on the premise that he can’t do this or he doesn’t have the authority, that it’s up to Congress to fix it,” Hayes said. “For the last 10 months, we’ve experienced a president running roughshod, doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.”
Tong said his claim that starvation would result by the SNAP suspension was not hyperbole.
“I do mean starvation. I do mean that people will not be able to eat on a reliable basis. And if you’re sick, if you’re a child, if you’re a toddler, that has immediate and draconian implications for you and your health,” Tong said.
State Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, D-Avon, who leads a General Assembly caucus on hunger issues, likened SNAP to a piece in the tabletop game, Jenga, where players try to remove blocks from a tower without causing its collapse.
“That is our food system. Our food system is like a game of Jenga,” she said. The removal of SNAP can cascade, harming grocers by taking billions out of the economy, she said.
Gov. Ned Lamont was not one of the three governors who joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. All three are Democrats in states with Republican attorneys general. In Connecticut, Tong does not need gubernatorial authority to sue, but he said he consulted with Lamont and the governor supports the lawsuit.
On Monday, Lamont announced that Connecticut’s first steps to mitigate the SNAP suspension would be a $3 million emergency grant to the nonprofit Connecticut Foodshare and an outreach campaign informing recipients of their nearest food pantry.
The emergency step will not match the reach or efficiency of SNAP, which normally pays $72 million in monthly benefits through Electronic Benefit Transfer cards that can be used to purchase food at chain supermarkets and many corner stores and farmers’ markets.
The state is unable to simply put more money on the EBT cards already in the hands of SNAP recipients. The state screens for eligibility, but a federal vendor actually uses the state data to reload the cards.
Emily Byrne, executive director of the research and advocacy group, Connecticut Voices for Children, said she hoped Connecticut would use other benefit programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to get food aid to those who need it.
Hawaii announced this week that it would distribute $100 million in emergency aid through its TANF program.