Attorney General Ellison sues Trump administration for holding hostage billions in critical USDA funding

Administration imposes new rules for finding programs like SNAP, WIC, and emergency food shelves that have nothing to do with these programs

Programs at risk serve hundreds of thousands of hungry Minnesota children and families every month

March 23, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Attorney General Ellison joined a coalition of 21 attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over its unconstitutional and unlawful attempt to impose conditions on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs, grants, cooperative agreements and mutual interest agreements.

In their lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition assert that USDA has threatened harsh penalties if states do not comply with the agency’s vague and expansive funding conditions relating to immigration, diversity, equity and inclusion, and gender identity, which are unrelated to the purpose of USDA funding. The lawsuit asks the court to block USDA from imposing these illegal funding conditions, including on critical USDA programs such as the school lunch program; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); and the Volunteer Fire Capacity Program. The programs provide basic, essential services for millions of Minnesota's most vulnerable children, working families, senior citizens and rural communities.

“It’s cruel, unlawful, and absurd for Donald Trump to cut support for hungry Minnesotans unless our state complies with his completely unrelated demands around DEI, gender identity, and immigration,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Feeding our hungry neighbors has nothing to do with DEI or gender, it’s a simple matter of doing what’s right. Minnesota is doing what’s right, and I’m taking Donald Trump to court to stop him from using hungry Minnesotans as a political prop.”

Effective Dec. 31, 2025, USDA adopted new funding conditions. The conditions require states to promise to comply with the Trump administration’s policies related to gender identity, diversity, immigration and fair athletic opportunities for girls and women. However, Attorney General Ellison and the attorneys general explain in their lawsuit that USDA does not fully identify or limit which policies the states must comply with, leaving states at the mercy of the administration for enforcement of the new conditions.

In their lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition allege the Trump administration has violated the Spending Clause by imposing coercive conditions without clear notice of its funding conditions. The lawsuit also alleges the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because conditions are the arbitrary and capricious, not constitutional, contrary to law and beyond USDA’s statutory authority.

USDA programs feed about 30 million children across the nation through the school lunch program, strengthen the American food ecosystem from farm to table, support national security through a robust and safe domestic agriculture community, fund university research to advance domestic food production, and save lives and infrastructure by funding firefighting programs.

Losing USDA grant funding would be devastating for Minnesota. SNAP benefits are entirely federally funded, and the loss of that funding would produce immediate food insecurity for roughly 440,000 Minnesotans. Families would be forced to ration any remaining benefits, go into debt or fail to meet other financial obligations like rent to put food on the table, or skip meals entirely. SNAP spending in Minnesota is roughly $70-75 million per month, which generates significant economic activity for local grocery stores and farmers markets across Minnesota. The sudden loss of this revenue due to cut SNAP benefits would cause significant financial harm to numerous Minnesota businesses.

Attorney General Ellison has already actively defended SNAP benefits for Minnesotans, winning court orders in December 2025 and January 2026 to protect them from arbitrary Trump Administration efforts to cut them.

USDA grants help fund numerous other important programs in the state. This includes WIC, which provides healthy food to low-income families with children under the age of 5. Approximately 20,000 infants and 60,000 children receive WIC benefits in Minnesota every month, and every $1 spent on WIC saves $2.50 in other costs. USDA grants also fund the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which supports 477 food shelves across Minnesota. In 2025, Minnesotans made nearly 9 million unique visits to food shelves supported by TEFAP, making on average approximately 750,000 visits per month. USDA grants further fund equipment for and the training of firefighters in greater Minnesota to improve the state’s capacity to respond to wildfires.

Attorney General Ellison and the coalition have asked the court to prohibit USDA from implementing or enforcing the illegal conditions.

Joining Attorney General Ellison in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.