President Donald Trump’s administration has agreed to fully fund a critical food assistance program that has stranded millions of Americans and their families after the government failed to keep it afloat at the start of the month.
But the government is simultaneously appealing a court order to ensure the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is fully funded after a weeklong lapse — the first in the program’s 61-year history.
A federal appeals court rejected his emergency request Friday night, leaving the order in place to fully fund SNAP for November.
On Thursday, a federal judge gave the administration 24 hours to fully fund SNAP and the Department of Agriculture said Friday afternoon that it will immediately begin funding the program while the legal challenge plays out.
District Judge John McConnell had ordered the administration to deliver full payments to states by Friday after finding that the government failed to address any administrative issues that prevented states from quickly sending out at least partial benefits to nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the program to keep from going hungry.
open image in galleryBut the Trump administration then filed an emergency request with a federal appeals court to freeze the judge’s order and block the courts from requiring the government to spend more money that goes beyond what’s left in a contingency fund to pay out partial benefits for the month.
A memo from USDA on Friday said the agency “will complete the processes necessary” to ensure that SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, are delivered to the states.
SNAP funds, which are distributed by the federal government to states each month, support the nation’s largest anti-hunger program. Roughly one in eight families receive an average of $188 per person per month, or about $6 per day, which is administered on prepaid cards that can be used to pay for groceries.
Food pantries across the country are warning that they are not be prepared to support the millions of families that rely on government assistance.
Officials in several states — including California, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — said SNAP recipients were beginning to receive monthly benefits by Friday afternoon. “Food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state has roughly 5.5 million SNAP recipients.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, whose state has roughly 3 million SNAP recipients, directed state agencies to “fully fund” federal benefits for November.
“President Trump's actions have been senseless and un-American. I'll never stop fighting for New York's families,” she said.
open image in galleryBefore two federal judges intervened, the administration intended to freeze funding for the program entirely during the government shutdown, claiming that it did not have legal authority to tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds. On a notice on its website last month, USDA claimed that the “well has run dry” and that “there will be no benefits issued November 1.”
The administration then agreed to tap into $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover roughly 65 percent of benefits. The USDA said those partial payments were sent to states on Monday but officials wrote in court documents that it would “take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months” for those recipients to start seeing those benefits.
In his ruling on Thursday, District Judge Jack McConnell said the administration failed to “expeditiously resolve” any clerical issues that could delay those payments, which he ordered last week.
As a result, “people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened and needless suffering will occur,” with SNAP funding lapsing for the first time in the nation’s history, the judge said during a virtual court hearing Thursday.
“People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” McConnell said. “This should never happen in America.”
