More than two dozen U.S. states are suing the Trump administration to prevent a lapse in SNAP benefits in November as partisan fighting over the anti-hunger program ratchets up.

USDA plans to suspend the benefits amid a partial government shutdown that's nearing the one-month mark. If the decision holds, it will mark the first time the program has been interrupted since it began, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Massachusetts. 

The agency suspended the aid even though "it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November SNAP benefits," the lawsuit from states including Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and California said. 

“Suspending SNAP benefits in these circumstances is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act."

The suit names Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and White House Budget Director Russell Vought.

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Rollins and other administration officials say congressional Democrats are to blame for a possible lapse in SNAP benefits because of their opposition to the House-passed stopgap spending bill. 

The Republican-led Senate so far lacks the 60-vote threshold needed to bring the House measure to a full floor vote, giving Democratic lawmakers leverage as they fight spending cuts. Leaders in the minority party already are reeling over $186 billion in SNAP funding reductions in the "Big Beautiful" tax bill that President Donald Trump signed into law in July.

House Democrats on Tuesday argued that the Trump administration has both the available funding and legal authority to ensure that SNAP benefits go out next month. 

The impasse over food aid is a “manmade Republican crisis," U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a press conference on Tuesday.  “Donald Trump has decided he wants to force millions of Americans, including possibly 16 million children, to experience hunger so they (Republicans) can continue their ‘my way or the highway’ approach to driving their right wing, extreme agenda down the throats of the American people,”

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance told reporters after meeting with GOP senators that SNAP could be funded if Democrats voted to reopen the government. 

"We are trying as much as possible to ensure that critical food benefits get paid, that our military gets paid. But you know what makes it really easy? If the Democrats just opened up the government, then we wouldn't have to play this game when we're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with the budget," he said. 

USDA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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