A group of GOP attorneys general from 22 states is warning that new guidance from the Department of Agriculture regarding transgender rights could jeapordize federal welfare programs such as food stamps and free school lunches for low-income residents in their states.

In May, the Biden administration informed states that they would need to amend their anti-discrimination rules to incorporate language specifically protecting people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The edict from the USDA’s civil rights office was directed at state agencies that manage programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides money for food purchases to low-income families.

States were warned that if they fail to comply with the guidance they risk losing federal funding for those programs. In addition to the food assistance program, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service manages a program providing free school lunches to low-income students that dates back to 1946. 

In a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general Tuesday in Tennessee, the group claims that the rules being handed down from Washington contradict laws in some of their states that forbid students from playing on sports teams of the opposite sex or using single-sex restrooms and locker rooms of another sex.

A letter last month from many of the same attorneys general asked President Biden to withdraw the guidance. The new rule, they wrote, “imposes new — and unlawful — regulatory measures on state agencies and operators receiving federal financial assistance from the USDA.”

“The Biden Administration’s sweeping rhetoric treats normal practices, such as sex-separated bathrooms and athletics, as ‘discriminatory’ even though [the Department of Justice] and the Department of Education treated those as legal, nondiscriminatory practices as recently as last year,” the lawsuit claims.

The lead attorney on the case, Tennessee’s attorney general, Herbert Slattery, said the lawsuit is “about a federal agency trying to change law, which is Congress’s exclusive prerogative. 

“The USDA simply does not have that authority. We have successfully challenged the Biden Administration’s other attempts to rewrite law and we will challenge this as well.”

Indiana’s attorney general, Todd Rokita, another signatory to the lawsuit, blasted the rules as purely political.

“We all know the Biden administration is dead-set on imposing an extreme left-wing agenda on Americans nationwide,” Mr. Rokita said. “But they have reached a new level of shamelessness with this ploy of holding up food assistance for low-income kids unless schools do the left’s bidding.”

The lawsuit alleges that the rules were imposed without allowing for public comment, and “inappropriately expand the law far beyond what statutory text, regulatory requirements, judicial precedent, and the U.S. Constitution permit.”

The states said they do not deny benefits based on anyone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. What they are objecting to is the attempt by federal regulators to impose obligations that “apparently stretch as far as ending sex-separated living facilities and athletics and mandating the use of biologically inaccurate preferred pronouns.”

In addition to Tennessee and Indiana, the states that signed off on the lawsuit include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Collectively, the states said they received about $28.6 billion in federal food assistance from the federal government in fiscal 2020 that was then distributed to more than 15.4 million people. Such aid, the states maintain, could be in jeopardy should they choose to ignore the USDA’s guidelines.

Since day one of his administration, President Biden has made a priority of expanding federal civil rights laws to protect people based on their gender identity. A sweeping executive order signed by Mr. Biden in January 2021 on the topic was cited by the USDA as justification for the guidance to the states.

“USDA is committed to administering all its programs with equity and fairness, and serving those in need with the highest dignity,” the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsak, said when the measures were announced. “A key step in advancing these principles is rooting out discrimination in any form — including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The USDA did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.