ST. PAUL, Minn. — Today, a coalition of Minnesota DFL legislators sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, strongly encouraging the Administration to release available funds so that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are not interrupted come November.
“More than 440,000 Minnesotans rely on SNAP to put food on the table, and without this critical lifeline, many families may face dire consequences," said House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson. "That's why it's so important that Donald Trump and the Republicans — who control the presidency, the House, and the Senate — do their jobs and end this government shutdown. At the very least, they should release funding to ensure food assistance is uninterrupted. Thanks to Republican policies, families are facing an affordability crisis, and food shelves are already struggling to meet the demand. It's unconscionable to deny families the help that they need.”
“As the clock ticks toward November 1, if SNAP benefits run out, half a million Minnesotans will face precarious situations, not knowing where their next meal may come from,” said House DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long. “It’s time for Trump and fellow Republicans to come back to the table to end this shutdown. In the meantime, his administration should commit to doing everything it can to protect access to this critical lifeline for families, including using USDA contingency funding.”
“Minnesotans rely on SNAP to make ends meet and stay fed and fueled for work and school,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy. “Working people in every corner of the state are getting by on shoestring family budgets and they can’t afford to go a single day without it. Losing food assistance would be the first domino to fall, jeopardizing people’s ability to pay energy bills, car payments and make rent on time. If Donald Trump and Republicans still won’t agree to keep people’s health insurance costs from tripling and quadrupling, they should just admit that. But don’t punish millions of Americans who need SNAP to put healthy food on the family table.”
“We’re calling on President Trump and the USDA to immediate release November SNAP benefits – anything less would be an intentional act of harm against American families,” said Rep. Liz Lee (DFL-Saint Paul). “This Administration knows that they have the power to release SNAP funds – they did so in 2019; we strongly urge them to do it again.”
The action comes as the federal government shutdown continues, threatening food assistance for more than 42 million low-income Americans, including more than 440,000 Minnesotans who rely on SNAP to purchase groceries. The Minnesota lawmakers stressed that the Administration has legal authority and sufficient financial reserves to prevent a crisis - pointing to the existence of substantial contingency funds and the Secretary’s discretion to transfer money between nutrition programs.
“We are writing to strongly encourage your Administration to choose to keep American families fed,” the letter states. “USDA has at least $5 billion in contingency funds that the Administration can and should release to provide even partial benefits to eligible households for November.”
According to the lawmakers, the $5 billion remaining in SNAP contingency funds could cover nearly two-thirds of the total $8 billion needed for a full month of benefits.
Furthermore, they cited the Secretary’s discretion under federal law (7 U.S.C. § 2257) to transfer additional funds from accounts like Child Nutrition (CN), which is estimated to have more than $23 billion available.
Lawmakers noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has already moved $300 million in nutrition funds to ensure Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs would not be disrupted.
“The Administration can choose to keep American families fed during this shutdown, like it did in 2019,” the letter concluded, urging the immediate release of funds to state SNAP directors.
The letter was sent to President Trump and Secretary Rollins, with copies directed to Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, and the state's full Congressional delegation.
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