Judge Orders Trump Administration To Pay Full Snap Benefits

A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November food stamps by Friday.

The oral order Thursday comes as nearly 42 million Americans have lost access to benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the record-breaking government shutdown. The Trump administration previously agreed to pay for partial SNAP benefits using emergency money but said that doing so would result in weeks, if not months, of delays.

“Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation's history. This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided,” said U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr., an Obama appointee. The government “knew there would be a long delay in paying [partial] SNAP benefits and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

McConnell said the Trump administration violated his earlier written order, which gave the government two options for compliance: The administration had discretion to make full payments — which would not need to go through the same administrative hurdles — as soon as practical. The government also had the option to make partial payments, but was required to do so by Wednesday.

“That’s the plain reading of the court’s order, and instead the government did nothing to ensure that the money would be paid on Wednesday," the judge said.

He noted that President Donald Trump’s post on social media that benefits wouldn’t be funded until the government reopened “stated his intent to defy the court order.”

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

Justice Department attorney Tyler Becker argued that the government complied with the judge’s order by making all $4.6 billion in a USDA contingency fund available to states on Monday and releasing guidance for how to distribute partial benefits. Any delay due to logistical hurdles, he added, was because of states' inability to quickly process partial payments.

“But that’s not what the order said, Mr. Becker,” McConnell responded.

The government has also argued that it can’t divert money from other funds to support the full $8 billion or so that’s needed for November benefits. However, Democratic lawmakers and nonprofits have pushed back on the administration’s decision, noting that officials were previously able to tap unused tariff revenue to support a nutrition program for millions of low-income women and children.

In a separate court in Massachusetts, states suing the administration filed another motion Thursday seeking to force the government to pay for SNAP in full.

States are scrambling to fill the void as day six passes without SNAP benefits. Some states are sending millions of dollars to food banks and others, like Virginia, are launching their own temporary food stamp program using state funds. But food bank leaders and local officials say that their efforts can’t replace the loss of federal dollars.

Beth Shapiro, CEO of Citymeals on Wheels, warned that even the increased donations she’s seeing are inadequate to cover the loss of SNAP in New York City.

“Our warehouse is filled. We have enough food to deliver to 50,000 older New Yorkers,” she said. “But this will not answer the need. Private nonprofits cannot fill the entire gap that this government is opening.”