by Thomas Breen
The Elicker administration sued the Trump administration again on Thursday, this time to try to stop the federal government from suspending the nation’s largest food assistance program amid the ongoing shutdown.
In a Thursday afternoon press release, Mayor Justin Elicker announced that the city has joined a group of other cities and nonprofits — including the cities of Albuquerque, Baltimore, Columbus, and Durham, as well as the United Way of Rhode Island and the New York Legal Assistance Group — in filing a new lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
The lawsuit names as defendants the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and those agencies’ respective directors.
According to the press release and underlying legal complaint, the lawsuit challenges two allegedly unlawful actions taken by the federal agriculture department in regards to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly know as food stamps. Those contested actions include the Trump administration’s “its refusal to use available funds to maintain SNAP benefits during the ongoing government shutdown, and its abrupt termination of existing waivers protecting part-time workers and job seekers from losing benefits in regions with few jobs.”
Those decisions “threaten to cut off essential food support to more than 42 million people, including children, seniors, and veterans, beginning November 1. In New Haven, approximately 42,930 residents – or about 31 percent of the population – receive SNAP benefits.”
The lawsuit argues that the administration’s actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act, among other laws.
Click here to read about how two local food pantries are bracing for steep increases in the number of families they serve if and when SNAP benefits lapse on Saturday.
Click here to read about an argument made by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and other top House Democrats that the Trump administration can and should disperse billions of dollars worth of contingency funding for SNAP, even if the federal government remains shut.
The Trump administration has argued that it cannot disperse that aid because of the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown.
“Ending SNAP benefits and denying low-income children, seniors and veterans’ access to food to feed themselves and their families is immoral and unconscionable,” Elicker is quoted as saying in Thursday’s press release. “Children and families will go hungry because of the Trump Administration’s callous and cruel decision – and we will not stand for it.”
Click here to read the lawsuit in full. The legal groups Democracy Forward and the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island are representing the plaintiffs in this case.
Thursday’s lawsuit marks the fourth time this year, and the second time this month, that the Elicker administration has sued the Trump administration. Click here, here, and here to read about those previous lawsuits.
A full list of plaintiffs for this new lawsuit include: City of Albuquerque, New Mexico; City of Baltimore, Maryland; City of Central Falls, Rhode Island; City of Columbus, Ohio; City of Durham, North Carolina; City of New Haven, Connecticut; City of Pawtucket, Rhode Island; City of Providence, Rhode Island; Rhode Island State Council of Churches; Amos House; East Bay Community Action Program; Federal Hill House Association; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center; The Milagros Project; the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN); New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG); United Way of Rhode Island; Main Street Alliance; Black Sheep Market in Greenville, South Carolina; and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).