California is one of 23 states suing President Donald Trump’s administration trying to force it to use emergency money to cover food benefits for millions of poor families during the federal government shutdown, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday.

More than five million Californians rely on the program each month, known in California as CalFresh, nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and colloquially as food stamps.

The federally-funded benefits amount to about $1 billion delivered to Californians’ electronic benefits cards each month to spend on groceries; the program lowers the state’s poverty rate by 3 percent, state Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson said Tuesday. The average family receiving CalFresh gets $330 a month.

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