States Sue USDA Over Gender Ideology, Illegal Immigration Rules to Get Billions in Funding

Twenty Democrat-run states and the District of Columbia are suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over a new policy that prohibits all grant recipients from using taxpayer funds to promote gender ideology, benefit illegal immigrants or on programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities or permit male competitive participation in women’s sports. In late December the federal agency that annually disburses tens of billions of dollars in food assistance announced the antidiscrimination rule forcing states to certify compliance with the new regulations before receiving money for costly welfare programs such food stamps, free school lunch and a special program for low-income women known as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and their kids under the age of five. The states suing over the new requirements receive over $74 billion annually from the USDA and they want their federal funds while still supporting the biased leftist policies of the previous administration.

The new Trump administration policy is unconstitutional, according to their lawsuit, which alleges that the conditions are vague, arbitrary, coercive and unrelated to the federal interest. The complaint also accuses the USDA of exceeding its legal authority and imposing the measure without following required legal procedure. The agency has “thrown unconstitutional and unlawful roadblocks between the programs created by Congress and the States that rely on them, threatening critical nutrition support, vital agricultural research, and the safety of our national food chain and communities,” according to the complaint, which also accuses the USDA of imposing extraneous and unreasoned conditions on all programs, grants and cooperative agreements. The lawsuit further alleges that the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution requires that “funding condition be communicated with sufficient clarity that it can be accepted knowingly and voluntarily, and it prohibits coercive conditions that place a gun to the head of recipients that cannot forgo critical funding.” The “ambiguous, coercive conditions” advanced by the USDA “undermine the status of the States as independent sovereigns in our federal system,” the complaint states.

Among the officials suing the USDA is New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was federally indicted last year with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. She says millions of New Yorkers depend on government assistance to put food on the table and their benefits could be threatened or delayed. “The federal government cannot hold critical funding hostage to force states to comply with vague, ideological directives,” James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. The other states suing are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, who has previously filed five lawsuits “challenging unlawful grant conditions imposed by the Trump Administration” confidently asserts that the president cannot make “cruel funding restrictions” that, she says in this case will result in people going hungry. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong says the administration’s immigration, diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity policies are unrelated to the purpose of USDA funding. “Trump’s message to Connecticut—fall in line with extreme MAGA ideology, or your families go hungry,” Tong said. “Trump wants states to sign hateful pledges that have absolutely nothing to do with food assistance.”

The updated USDA funding policy is part of broader initiatives launched by President Trump early last year to defend women from gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth to the federal government and end the taxpayer subsidization of open borders. Under the first measure the federal government will “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” according to a presidential order. The second aims to prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration to the United States by ensuring that no taxpayer-funded benefits go to unqualified aliens. States only need to comply with the new rules to receive their billions in USDA funds.