Arizona has filed a lawsuit alongside two dozen other states in an attempt to force the Trump administration to continue funding the food assistance relied on by nearly 900,000 Arizonans.
Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 21 other Democratic attorneys general and three governors on the lawsuit, which asks a federal judge to force the administration to continue funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The USDA notified states that it is suspending SNAP funding for November due to the ongoing government shutdown.
But Mayes and other Democratic officials claimed the agency could tap into other funding sources to cover SNAP costs, including a contingency fund set up by Congress that still has around $5 billion on the books or a special fund the administration already used to continue paying for food benefits for women, infants and children.
“They should use that funding to provide November SNAP benefits immediately,” Mayes said. “The people who rely on SNAP are low-income families, seniors and young kids.”
In Arizona, more than 887,000 people rely on SNAP for monthly food assistance.
Mayes said that one in four SNAP recipients in Arizona are children and that rural communities could be especially hard hit, pointing out that around half of the families in Apache and Gila counties receive assistance.
And she said cuts to the SNAP program will then have a ripple effect, putting more strain on area food banks and hurting businesses that accept food stamps.
“So we are facing a situation on November 1 that is potentially cataclysmic for our state,” she said.
Funding questions
The Trump administration claims it can’t use the funding sources cited in the lawsuit during a shutdown, arguing they are only available when money already appropriated by Congress for SNAP isn’t sufficient to cover monthly costs.
“Instead, the contingency fund is a source of funds for contingencies, such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides food purchasing benefits for individuals in disaster areas, including natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, that can come on quickly and without notice,” according to a USDA informational document provided to KJZZ by the agency.
Because Congress hasn’t appropriated any money for the current fiscal year, the contingency fund is off limits, the agency claims.
But Mayes said that contradicts previous USDA guidance.
“We have had shutdowns in the past, and we have always used this contingency fund to address those shutdown deficiencies,” Mayes said.
The lawsuit cites USDA policies under both former President Joe Biden and the first and second Trump administrations that indicate contingency funds are available for use during a shutdown.
That includes guidance issued during a shutdown in January 2019 that stated, “limited funding is available from the contingency that can be used to provide benefits for February.”
The blame game
The administration maintains the only way to restore SNAP benefits is to reopen the government.
And Trump officials blame Senate Democrats for failing to provide the votes needed to pass a temporary spending plan backed by Republicans.
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. Continue to hold out for the Far-Left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement.
Arizona’s senators, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, have defended their decision to hold out alongside most other Senate Democrats in an attempt to force Republicans to agree to renew Affordable Care Act subsidies and avoid skyrocketing premiums for people who purchase their insurance on the marketplace.
“The president has billions of dollars at his disposal to prevent a lapse in SNAP benefits, but he’s choosing to hurt working families and use them as political pawns in this shutdown,” Kelly said in a statement. “I want to see the government reopen and stop health care costs from spiking, but that requires President Trump and congressional Republicans to come to the table and work on a solution.”
A temporary stopgap
In the meantime, Mayes is calling on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republicans who control the state Legislature to temporarily supplement federal SNAP funding, so Arizonans don’t lose benefits in November.
“And I have communicated that to the governor, and I am communicating that right now to the Republicans in the Legislature: get off your butts, get into a special session and use some of that rainy day fund to solve this crisis,” Mayes said.
The state’s budget stabilization fund, also called the rainy day fund, has a roughly $1.6 billion balance. The fund, established in 1990, was created to provide a source of funding during economic downturns.
Mayes said pulling from the fund to temporarily pay for SNAP benefits in November will ensure people don’t lose benefits while the lawsuit works its way through the courts.
But it is unlikely Hobbs or legislative Republicans will heed Mayes’ call.
The governor, who has long said the state doesn’t have the money to cover for federal cuts, called on the Trump administration to use the contingency fund.
“The Governor’s Office is considering all available options and examining creative solutions to mitigate the damage done by reckless Washington Republicans, but the State of Arizona cannot afford to backfill the over $150 million in food assistance the federal government sends to the people of Arizona every month,” Hobbs spokesman Christian Slater said in a statement.
When asked whether he would support using the rainy day fund to supplement SNAP funding, Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) echoed the Trump administration’s comments.
“SNAP is a federal program,” he said in a text. “Mayes should be telling Senators Gallego and Kelly to vote to open the (government). This is a Democrat caused shut down.”
Mayes, for her part, indicated she has no plans to call on Kelly or Gallego to help Republicans — who control the House, Senate and White House — to reach the 60 votes they need to pass a spending bill in the Senate.
“The House refuses to negotiate. The Senate refuses to negotiate with Democrats,” Mayes said. “It is completely reasonable, in fact, absolutely necessary, for House and Senate Democrats to stand up for the ACA. We have tens of millions of Americans who are about to see their ACA premium skyrocket in just a few weeks.”
Mayes said she is hopeful a judge will act quickly on the lawsuit, though she acknowledged that Arizonans who rely on the program may still be impacted temporarily even if a judge pauses the federal SNAP freeze before Nov. 1.
