Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

By Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $5.3 billion remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program costs between $8 billion and $9 billion a month, so the orders will not cover all of the needed payments for November.

“There is no doubt that the … contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation.” US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP, it just does away with the funding of it.”

McConnell’s ruling during a hastily scheduled hearing came minutes after US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston made a similar order. Both judges, appointees of President Barack Obama, also said that USDA is allowed to tap into another bucket of money of nearly $17 billion to pay November SNAP benefits in full, but that decision is currently up to the administration.

The Trump administration opposes tapping into those other funds, arguing it will hurt the child nutrition programs that the revenue supports.

“This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program. And while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, Defendants also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds … to avoid any reductions,” Talwani said in a 15-page order.

However, millions of recipients will still face delays in getting their benefits, which were scheduled to start being distributed on November 1. It will take time for the Department of Agriculture and states to get the money flowing again.

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that the government could continue to fund critical food aid beyond November 1, contradicting his administration’s prior insistence there was no money available to maintain the benefits.

“Well, there always is,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about whether the administration could find funding for SNAP, before arguing that it’d be simpler for Democrats to side with Republicans and vote to reopen the government. “But all the Democrats have to do is say, let’s go. I mean, they don’t have to do anything — all they have to do is say the government is open.”

In the program’s decades-long history, a government shutdown has never prevented it from distributing SNAP funds to states, which administer the benefits, though the program was at risk during the 2018-2019 impasse.

The Boston lawsuit was filed earlier this week by a group of Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states and Washington, DC, while the case in Rhode Island was brought Thursday by a coalition of cities, non-profits, unions and small businesses.

As the government shutdown nears its one-month mark, courts are increasingly being asked to intervene to stave off a series of dramatic developments. Earlier this week, a federal judge in California indefinitely blocked the administration from laying off thousands of federal workers, saying the government was unlawfully using the shutdown as legal justification for the layoffs.

The administration could seek appeals. Asked earlier Friday by CNN what the department would do if courts required USDA to tap into the contingency fund, Secretary Brooke Rollins said, “We’re looking at all the options.”

Delayed payments

States stopped the process of issuing benefits for November after the USDA sent them a letter on October 10 ordering them to do so. States send SNAP enrollees’ information to vendors every month so they can load funds onto recipients’ benefit cards.

Each state has a specific date by which they must send the information ahead of the new month in order for benefits to go out on time, according to the lawsuit. Payments are made on a staggered basis throughout the month.

In addition to acknowledging the likely delay in benefits, Talwani, who held a hearing Thursday, also asked about the process of providing partial payments to recipients next month since the contingency fund alone won’t cover the full amount.

This story has been updated with additional developments,

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