More than 40 million Americans rely on the program to buy food each month.
By Catholics for Catholics
Food stamps go on to live another day. For now.
In a last minute decision, two federal judges on Friday said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is legally obligated to use emergency funds to pay out food stamps benefits during the government shutdown.
According to The Epoch Times, the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program’s (SNAP’s) funding was scheduled to expire on Saturday because of the government shutdown. The move was going to affect the food benefits of 40 million Americans.
But U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell of Rhode Island ruled from the federal bench that the program must be subsidized using at least the contingency funds. He also requested an update on progress by Monday.
The USDA was retaining two different funds of emergency monies. One that is worth $5 billion is reserved for “natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes,” and another worth $23 billion was recently redirected from tariff revenue.
According to The Times, the second reserve of monies is earmarked to keep school meal programs going during the shutdown, the USDA said, along with the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which pays for infant formula and extra food for young children and their mothers.
During a hearing in Boston on Oct. 30, the attorneys representing the USDA contended that using the emergency funds to pay SNAP benefits was a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which decrees how the government operates during a shutdown.
Brooke Rollins, the Agriculture Secretary, had told reporters on Oct. 31 that the suggestion that the USDA can use the emergency funds for SNAP “is a lie.”
“There is a contingency fund at USDA, but that contingency fund by the way doesn’t even cover, I think, half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP,” she said.
Rollins also said those funds “can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved,” and that even if they could be used, the debate on funding SNAP would resume in two weeks when that money runs out.
In Massachusetts, a federal judge gave the administration until Monday to specify whether it would partially pay for SNAP benefits in November with contingency funds or fully pay for them with additional funding.
“Congress appropriated $6 billion to SNAP in 2024 as a contingency reserve through 2026, ’to be used in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations,’” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in her written order.
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