“Massachusetts and Democratic officials from two dozen other states went to court Tuesday to try to force the Trump administration to pay food benefits set to run out on Saturday, while pressure mounted on Governor Maura Healey to tap the state’s “rainy day” fund as a stopgap to feed the more than 1 million residents who depend on the program.

“The lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts accuses the US Department of Agriculture of “unlawfully” suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, during the government shutdown despite having billions of dollars in contingency funds available.

“The looming loss of food benefits for some 42 million people has emerged as one of the most serious consequences of the standoff in Washington, D.C.. With the shutdown entering its fifth week and food benefits soon to expire, advocates are making increasingly desperate appeals for donations from the public and backstop measures from state houses if no resolution emerges from Washington.”

” ‘It is an inhumane and cruel decision to suspend SNAP benefits for millions of Americans,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said at a rally at the State House on Tuesday. “Our federal government has an absolute obligation to ensure that these families, these working families, struggling to make ends meet, are able to put food on their table and to not punish them for circumstances outside of their control.'”

“Erin McAleer, chief executive of nonprofit Project Bread, which organized the rally Tuesday, said Healey should step in if the shutdown continues and the Trump administration won’t relent.

“ ‘We know it’s not the state’s responsibility to pay for a federal nutrition program,’ McAleer said after the rally, ‘but . . . to prevent that harm, we’re asking to pull from the ‘rainy day’ fund on a day-by-day basis.’ “

— “Massachusetts, 24 other states sue Trump administration over looming SNAP suspension,” by Katarina Schmeiszer and Travis Andersen Globe, Correspondent and Globe Staff, October 28, 2025