Federal Judges Order Trump Administration To Continue Food Stamp Payments

Two federal judges are ordering the Trump administration to continue sending funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, to states during the partial government shutdown.In one case in Boston, a group of 25 Democratic-run states asked United States District Judge Indira Talwani to block the cutoff of funds. On Friday, Judge Talwani ordered payments to continue using contingency funds.In the second ruling that came down at almost the same time, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled against the administration in a suit filed by cities and charities.Both judges asked for an update by Monday from the Trump administration on their progress in distributing funding, the Associated Press reported.Senator Amy Klobuchar, the ranking member of the Agriculture committee, hailed the decision.“Trump has no excuse to withhold food assistance,” Ms. Klobuchar said in an X post. “If the admin does not issue SNAP, it is purely a cruel political decision, not a legal one.”It wasn’t clear how long it would take to reload the debit cards beneficiaries use to buy groceries and both cases are expected to be appealed.The administration has more than $5 billion in an emergency fund that can be used to keep the program running after the scheduled expiration date on Saturday. The funds were set aside in March as part of a previous government funding deal.The federal government shutdown began October 1, and the Trump administration initially protected SNAP funding for October but chose not to fund it for November. The program costs about $8 billion a month so the emergency fund would only cover several weeks of full SNAP benefits if the shutdown continues.The government claims partial payments would require benefit recalculations that could delay payments for weeks.The Department of Agriculture previously warned it would not be able to keep SNAP funded past November 1. The department estimated that 42 million people across 22 million households would lose access to benefits this weekend.“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program,” a partisan notice at the top of the Department of Agriculture website on Friday stated.“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”Food banks had been bracing for an influx of needy people on top of federal workers who have not been getting a paycheck.“We are seeing an uptick from those who were afraid of losing their benefits coupled with our federal worker population who will not be getting a paycheck next week,” Haymarket Food Pantry’s executive director, Eileen F. Smith, told The New York Sun. Her food bank covers a more affluent area in Prince William County in Virginia, about 30 miles west of Washington, D.C., where many federal workers live.“In our area, we have both federal workers and contractors who are affected. We are in the beginning stages of having a special food distribution next weekend for the federal workers who have been impacted,” Ms. Smith said.

Federal Judges Order Trump Administration To Continue Food Stamp Payments

Federal Judges Order Trump Administration To Continue Food Stamp Payments

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