Federal โฃJudgeโ orders Partialโ SNAP Benefits Amidโค Government Shutdown
A federal judge on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to utilize available contingency funds toโฃ issue partialโ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP) benefits, averting a โฃcompleteโ halt to food assistanceโข for roughly 42 million Americans during the ongoing government shutdown. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by 25 states, the district of โColumbia, and severalโข municipalities seeking to compel โคtheโค USDA toโ release the funds.
The judge stipulated โthat the government must “findโค the additional funds necessary (beyond the contingency funds) โคto fully fund the November SNAP payments,” acknowledging the $5 billion contingencyโ fund falls short ofโฃ the $9โฃ billion required โfor โfullโ benefits. While the administration โขargued calculating partial payments wouldโข be “exceedingly difficult, highly disruptive, and delayed,” theโค judge stated partial payments were permissible, but under “no circumstances” โcould โฃtheyโค be delayed beyond Wednesday.
the USDA initially โwarned late lastโฃ monthโฃ that SNAP payments, โscheduled for November โ1, would โbe suspended, attributing the pause to congressional democrats’ refusal to support a Republican-backed stopgap measure. However, the agency’s initial September 30 plan โฃindicated multi-year contingency fundsโ could โคbeโฃ usedโค for participant benefits during a shutdown.The USDA โขlater reversed course, claiming in a โlate-October memo that โthe reserve funds were “not legally available to cover regular โbenefits” and wereโฃ reserved for disaster relief.
Approximately one in eight Americans rely on SNAPโ benefits. The government โshutdown โคentered its 34th dayโฃ on Monday and is โฃon track to become the longest โขinโข U.S. history if a spending agreement isn’t reached by late Tuesday.
