In New York, we value not the wealth of the few, but the well-being of all — the families in our buildings, the children in our schools, the seniors on our block. Yet today, millions of our neighbors agonize over whether they will be able to feed their families next week. This crisis rests solely on the federal government’s choice to withhold food assistance that it is legally obligated to provide as long as contingency funds are available.
This month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a program that helps more than 40 million Americans, including nearly three million New Yorkers, put food on the table each month. From Brownsville to Buffalo, that decision means families will go hungry. It means empty refrigerators and anxious parents. It means children going to bed hungry.
SNAP is the most effective anti-hunger program in our nation’s history. It exists for moments like this — to make sure no family is ever forced to choose between a roof over their heads and dinner on the table. Congress has set aside billions in contingency funds for the explicit purpose of keeping this program running. Those funds exist. They are available. Yet the federal government withholds them.
Why? It is not negligence. It is cruelty.
This is not a question of resources — it is a question of resolve. The funding is available, yet leaders in Washington delay. Once SNAP funding expires, every day, minute, and hour that a child goes without food is the responsibility of this administration and the result of Congress’ failures.
Parents will skip meals so their growing babies can eat. Students will show up to school unable to focus. For some kids, lunchtime at school will be the only proper meal they have per day. Seniors on fixed incomes will watch their fridges empty out. Small grocers in our neighborhoods will lose business they rely on. The reality of hunger does not stop because Congress cannot function.
We know the cost of inaction in response to hunger. Our country is capable of policymaking that is effective in getting dinner on the table for countless families nationwide. The data proves that food assistance works. During the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, SNAP kept millions from falling into the trenches of hunger. Cutting these benefits off now will not just harm vulnerable households. It will deepen the scars of inequality and erode people’s trust in their government.
This fight goes beyond one shutdown or one federal program. This moment asks: Are we the type of country that stands idly by while our children starve? Do we allow hunger to beat families down — or will we lift them up? My office’s lawsuit is not just about enforcing the law. It is about enacting our shared American values. When the federal government cannot provide basic necessities to our fellow Americans, that government has failed.
This deliberate act punishes working families, children, seniors, and veterans simply because of Washington’s dysfunction. Here in New York, nearly one million children rely on SNAP to eat. More than 600,000 seniors depend on SNAP benefits to stretch their fixed incomes. When we wake up on Nov. 1, hundreds of millions of dollars in grocery money will have vanished overnight from New York’s economy, leaving food banks and soup kitchens overwhelmed, as our communities scramble to fill the gap.
My fellow Democratic attorneys general and I are fighting back. Alongside 24 other states and the District of Columbia, New York has filed a lawsuit to stop this unlawful suspension and force the USDA to use the contingency funds Congress has provided.
The law is clear: SNAP benefits must be furnished to all eligible households, even during appropriations lapses, so long as federal funds are available. No federal administration in history has ever denied food assistance during a shutdown. As Washington’s broken politics pan out, New York’s children could go hungry. I will not stand for it. When families are left hungry while federal funds sit unused, that is a moral failure.
I am proud to stand with Gov. Hochul, advocates, and community leaders across New York to ensure every family can eat with dignity. Hunger is not a partisan issue. It is a human one. I will never stop working to make sure that no New Yorker — no child, no parent, no neighbor — is left to face starvation by their own government. I will fight for as long as it takes.
James is the attorney general of New York.
