Illinois joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia in suing the Trump administration over plans to stop funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Saturday as the federal government shutdown continues.
About 1.9 million people in Illinois, and about 42 million people across the country, depend on SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps, each month. The state administers $350 million in SNAP benefits each month to low-income or other qualifying individuals, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. Forty-five percent of SNAP households include children, and 44% include a person with a disability.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced earlier this month that it will not have money to pay SNAP benefits in November if the government remains shut down on Nov. 1. The U.S. House is not scheduled to be in session this week, meaning SNAP funding is certain to run out at the end of the month.
The government shutdown began on Oct. 1.
Read more: Nearly 2 million Illinoisians set to lose SNAP benefits amid congressional stalemate
The lawsuit argues the USDA does have money to continue paying benefits in November. It claims Congress has appropriated contingency funds for emergencies such as a government shutdown that USDA can tap into now to continue funding SNAP.
“At a time of increased costs for families, the Trump administration is making a deliberate, illegal and cruel decision to cut off access to food for nearly 2 million Illinoisans,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement.
Gov. JB Pritzker said last week the state is looking at ways to help people affected by the program’s pause, but options are limited because the federal government pays all the benefits for the program.
President Donald Trump’s decision to continue paying certain groups of federal works while programs like SNAP have been stopped has angered many Democrats. The president said a mystery donor — later revealed to be Timothy Mellon, an heir to the influential Mellon family — is giving $130 million to pay the military during the shutdown.
It’s not clear when Congress will be back in session as the parties remain at odds over health care funding. The shutdown will become the longest in U.S. history if it extends beyond Nov. 4, breaking the record of another shutdown that began in 2018 during Trump’s first term.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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