Judges Order Trump Admin to Use Emergency Funds to Pay for SNAP Benefits
A pair of federal judges ruled Friday that the Trump administration must use emergency funding to restore at least some SNAP food benefits — one day before the US Department of Agriculture had warned money for the program would run out due to the ongoing government shutdown.
The judges in Boston and Providence, RI, both said that the USDA could decide whether to fund the entitlement commonly known as food stamps in full or in part for the month of November — but a full cutoff was unlawful.
The SNAP program serves approximately 42 million Americans and costs about $8 billion per month nationally.
Leaders of 25 Democratic-run states and the District of Columbia sued the USDA in Boston federal court Tuesday after the executive agency warned that the “well has run dry” for SNAP benefits.
Senate Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have voted to reject the funding bill 13 times in hopes of forcing concessions from Republicans that would extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire Dec. 31.
The Trump administration argued that a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it set aside for emergencies could not be used even if it wanted to. The states — along with a coalition of cities and nonprofits who brought the Rhode Island case — argued not only that the money could be used, but that it had to be used under the Food and Nutrition Act, which requires that “assistance under this program shall be furnished to all eligible households.” (Read more from “Judges Order Trump Admin to Use Emergency Funds to Pay for SNAP Benefits” HERE)
