California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday announced his 45th lawsuit against the Trump administration so far this year, joining two dozen states in suing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for withholding SNAP benefits from low-income Americans as a consequence of the government shutdown.

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides food assistance (food stamps) to around 5.5 million Californians, and around 41 million Americans, most of them families and older adults. As of several weeks ago, the USDA did an about-face, reneging on an earlier plan to make sure November benefits were covered, and informed states that benefits would not be paid out on November 1 — blaming Democrats for not ending the government shutdown.

In a press conference Tuesday morning, Bonta pointed to the precendent of previous shutdowns, and to the very words stated by the USDA at the start of the shutdown in communications with states, in arguing that the government has $5 billion to $6 billion in contingency funds that should be tapped for this situation, in order to prevent people from going hungry.

Bonta noted that this is the first time the USDA has decided to withhold SNAP benefits during a shutdown since they were made permanent in the 1960s.

In recent days, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has claimed that her department's contingency funds are "not legally available" to cover SNAP benefits, putting up a politically tinged notice on the USDA website — the Republicans are using the line "The well has run dry."

"In abruptly ending SNAP Benefits, Trump and Rollins have broken the law," Bonta said at the new conference. He said they were making statements about running out of money "even though there are billions of dollars in contingency funds that could be used to pay these benefits," and, "This is what contingency funds are for, exactly this type of situation."

Bonta added, "Trump and his administration are willing to put 41 million Americans at risk of going hungry as just another ploy in their twisted political game."

As the New York Times reports, the lawsuit was filed today by a "mix of attorneys general and governors" from over two dozen states, including Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, and North Carolina.

"We will be successful," Governor Gavin Newsom said at the press conference. "This is about as crystal clear an argument as I've seen among all the 44 other lawsuits we've filed against this administration."

Newsom called out Republican governors and all the red states that are not participating in this lawsuit, saying that rural and red areas will see a "disproportionate" impact if SNAP benefits are not paid.

Both Bonta and Newsom pointed to the irony of Trump starting demolition for his gold-trimmed ballroom where the East Wing of the White House used to be, all while millions of Americans are going to be going hungry. And Newsom also pointed to the Republicans' larger plan to cut off food assistance, including $186 billion in cuts to the SNAP program — creating new criteria and requirements for those applying — as evidence of their heartlessness to the poor of this country.

"Maybe they got an edited version of Donald Trump's Bible," Newsom said, referring to Republicans and their "prayer breakfasts," and how they regularly ignore the core tenet of the New and Old Testaments about feeding the hungry and caring for the poor.

Letitia James, the attorney general of New York State, who is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice in a retaliatory move by Trump for the lawsuits filed against him, gave a statement about the SNAP benefit situation, saying, "SNAP is one of our nation’s most effective tools to fight hunger, and the USDA has the money to keep it running."

She added, "There is no excuse for this administration to abandon families who rely on SNAP, or food stamps, as a lifeline."

Top image: Rob Bonta, California Attorney General, speaks onstage during the 2025 Concordia Annual Summit at Sheraton New York Times Square on September 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit)