Trump Admin Must Fully Fund Food Stamps for November: Judge

The Trump administration must pay the approximately $9 billion to fully fund food stamps for November, a federal judge ruled on Nov. 6.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must pay states the money by Nov. 7 to distribute to the approximately 42 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, according to an oral order from Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.

“People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” McConnell said.

USDA officials had declined to fund SNAP amid the government shutdown, arguing that they could not use contingency money or revenue from tariffs. McConnell, in response to a lawsuit, recently said that the administration could either partially fund November benefits with contingency money or fully fund benefits for the month with that money and the tariff revenue.

“If the Government does want to use its discretion to use funds available to make a full payment of SNAP benefits for November 6, then it must expeditiously resolve the administrative and clerical burdens it described in its papers … but under no circumstances shall the partial payments be made later than Wednesday, November 5,” McConnell wrote in a temporary restraining order on Nov. 1.

The government chose to partially fund the November benefits using the contingency fund, which it said contained $4.6 billion. The government stated that it would not use the tariff revenue, or Section 32 funds, because if it were to, then child nutrition programs funded by that revenue might eventually run out of money.

The Rhode Island State Council of Churches and other plaintiffs filed a motion to enforce the order. They said that reasons given by the government for not fully funding the benefits were arbitrary and capricious, in violation of federal law.

They also said the government failed to abide by McConnell’s requirement that partial payments be made by Nov. 5.

“Tapping into those funds now to fully fund November SNAP benefits will not take funding away from those child nutrition programs unless the government shutdown lasts until next June,” Kristin Bateman, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told the judge during the hearing.

“There’s no more time to wait.”

Tyler Becker, a government attorney, said that the government complied with the order because it distributed the contingency money to states by the deadline. SNAP is a joint federal-state program.

“The money is available to states,” he said.

“This is a state problem.”

McConnell disagreed, pointing out that in court filings, government officials said that it could take weeks or even months for some SNAP participants to receive benefits they would usually receive in November.

“Clearly, the government did not read the order in its plain language,” he said.

McConnell said that the first lapse of SNAP payments in the program’s history could have and should have been avoided, and he said that officials have lost the ability to use their discretion since they did not follow his order.

“Using Section 32 money was discretionary, but when you can’t fix irreparable harm, you’ve lost the ability to exercise that discretion,” the judge said.

He also noted that after the order was entered, President Donald Trump said the government would not pay SNAP benefits until the government reopens. McConnell said Trump was outlining an intent to defy the order.

In response to a question about Trump’s post at a briefing this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration was in full compliance with McConnell’s order.

“The recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand it’s going to take some time to receive this money, because the Democrats have forced the administration into a very untenable position,” she said. “We are digging into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war, and the president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future, and that’s what he was referring to in his Truth Social post.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr.’s name. The Epoch Times regrets the error.