Donald Trump’s administration will partially fund a critical food assistance program that supports nearly 43 million Americans after a federal judge ordered the federal government to tap into emergency funds to keep it afloat.
But it’s not clear how quickly states will receive that money to distribute to people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which could take up to two weeks in some states and potentially months to process, according to officials. The Trump administration stopped funding the program November 1.
The administration had initially 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.
Two federal judges last week disagreed and urged the government to quickly dispense the money to states to prevent millions of Americans from going hungry.
In court filings Monday, the government said $4.65 billion can be used to cover 50 percent of SNAP benefits for people who are currently enrolled. “This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” officials wrote.
After last week’s court rulings, Trump blamed Democrats in Congress for the impasse over a short-term funding bill to reopen the government and continue funding SNAP, but “even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” he wrote Friday night.
“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding,” he said.
In a ruling from the bench Friday, Rhode Island District Judge Jack McConnell said “there is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will continue to occur” if the government stops funding SNAP.
Families are already experiencing “terror” at the prospect that they will lose access to benefits without urgent congressional action or the Trump administration’s intervention, he said during a virtual court hearing.
In a parallel case, Massachusetts District Judge Indira Talwani said last week that the government’s suspension of the program is likely unlawful.
“We’re not going to make everyone drop dead,” she said during a hearing in the case Thursday.
A lawsuit from Democratic leaders from 25 states argues that the Department of Agriculture is legally required to continue funding the program as long as there are contingency funds to support it. A separate lawsuit brought by nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups in Rhode Island similarly argued that the administration was illegally pulling the plug on SNAP by resisting those contingency funds.
The USDA’s emergency plan outlined in a September memo said the agency could tap into a multiyear contingency to continue supporting SNAP in the event funding came to a screeching halt.
But the document was removed from the USDA website, and a follow-up memo now claims USDA’s contingency funding was “not legally available to cover regular benefits.”
