10/31/2025
Attorney General Ellison wins restoration of SNAP benefits for 440,000 Minnesotans
October 31, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — A court this afternoon issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use a contingency fund of over $5 billion to continue providing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits nationwide. This ruling comes in response to a lawsuit Attorney General Ellison co-led against USDA and its Secretary Brooke Rollins for unlawfully suspending SNAP benefits, which helps more than 40 million Americans buy food during the ongoing federal government shutdown. An average of 440,000 Minnesotans receive SNAP benefits every month, including over 180,000 children, and about 67,000 seniors, and 52,000 people with disabilities..
The court stated the following in its ruling (emphasis theirs):
“Defendants’ suspension of SNAP payments was based on the erroneous conclusion that the Contingency Funds could not be used to ensure continuation of SNAP payments. This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program.”
While USDA will be required to use their $5 billion contingency fund to continue to provide SNAP benefits nationwide, the fund does not have enough money to pay for full SNAP benefits throughout the month of November. The court also confirmed that USDA has access to additional funds which it can use to continue to provide SNAP benefits once the initial $5 billion fund is exhausted. The court ordered USDA to evaluate whether and how it will use that additional fund to continue to provide benefits throughout November, and to report their decision by no later than Monday, November 3.
“Today’s ruling made it clear that Donald Trump’s Department of Agriculture has multiple ways to continue feeding hungry Minnesotans during the shutdown,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Instead of using any of that available funding, the Trump administration tried to take food off the table of kids and families across our state and across our country. It is impossible for me to understand the cruelty required to use 42 million hungry Americans as political leverage.”
“It is a tremendous privilege to help lead this legal fight and to have stopped President Trump from using hunger as a political weapon, and the fact this fight was even necessary should spur every American into action and spur Congress into forcing the release of every SNAP dollar hungry Americans are entitled to,” added Ellison.
Background on Attorney General Ellison’s Lawsuit Against USDA
The lawsuit Attorney General Ellison co-led against USDA on October 28 argues that Congress put a rainy-day fund in place so nutrition support could continue during a government shutdown. Despite that clear Congressional intent, Trump’s USDA refused to tap into that fund, claiming there were insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for the approximately 42 million individuals across the country that rely on them.
The agency has access to billions of dollars in SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriated by Congress for the continuation of the SNAP program in the event of an emergency. On September 30, 2025, the USDA released a plan in the event of a government shutdown. On page 15 of that plan, USDA states that:
