![\"a](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8c6fcb1cd5aac490f0e3c0632e4f93f8302b8137\/500_0_5000_4000\/master\/5000.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=841e79b3782dc3e2fcd84a92ec8b5cfe\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nJohn McConnell, a US district judge in Providence, issued a temporary restraining order in the\u00a0Rhode Island\u00a0case at the behest of those plaintiffs. They had argued that the US Department of Agriculture\u2019s suspension of Snap benefits due to kick in on Saturday was unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snap, the nation\u2019s\u00a0largest anti-hunger initiative, provides assistance to nearly 42 million \u2013 one in eight \u2013 low-income Americans each month. The USDA has said insufficient funds exist to pay full benefits, as issuing food stamps costs the public purse between $8.5bn and $9bn every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration contends the agency lacks authority to pay them until Congress passes a spending bill that will ending the enduring government shutdown which began on 1 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plaintiffs in the civil case being heard in Rhode Island are represented by the liberal legal advocacy group Democracy Forward. The group argued that the federal government\u2019s decision to suspend the nutritional benefits was wrong and unlawful, as the USDA still had funds available to fulfill its obligation to fund the Snap program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such available funding includes $5.25bn in contingency funds that Congress has previously provided for the USDA to use when \u201cnecessary to carry out program operations\u201d, the plaintiffs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from the contingency funds, the plaintiffs argued that a separate fund with about $23bn in it could also be utilized to avoid what would be an unprecedented suspension of Snap benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the\u00a0Massachusetts\u00a0case, the US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston gave the administration until Monday to say whether it would partly pay for the benefits for November with contingency money or fund them fully with additional funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t immediately clear how quickly the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded after the ruling. That process often takes one to two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rulings are likely to face appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their challenge, the Democratic-led states argued that the agriculture department has the legal authority \u2013 and available funds \u2013 to at least partly maintain the program during the shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause of [the] USDA\u2019s actions, Snap benefits will be delayed for the first time since the program\u2019s inception,\u201d the states said in their complaint. \u201cWorse still, [the] USDA suspended Snap benefits even though, on information and belief, it has funds available to it that are sufficient to fund all, or at least a substantial portion, of November Snap benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration has maintained that the department\u2019s contingency fund is intended for natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, not government shutdowns. The government has acknowledged that it has billions of federal dollars left, including emergency funds especially marked for Snap, but top officials have maintained they are unable to tap into those reserve funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration warned that a court order requiring it to use emergency reserves to fund Snap would be \u201coperationally fraught\u201d, arguing it could take weeks to deliver benefits and might leave families with less than half their normal monthly allotment. In court filings, officials noted that such a partial payment \u201chas never been made \u2013 and for good reason\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The argument appears to contradict the department\u2019s lapsed-funding plan,\u00a0released\u00a0in late September, which stated that Congress\u2019s \u201cevident\u201d intent was for Snap operations to continue during a government shutdown and pointed to \u201cmulti-year contingency funds\u201d that could be tapped in the event the closures dragged on. The plan has been removed from the department\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The USDA\u2019s website now carries a strikingly partisan notice, accusing Senate Democrats, incorrectly, of shutting down the government to provide healthcare to undocumented immigrants and trans Americans. \u201cBottom line, the well has run dry,\u201d the notice says. \u201cAt this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The administration\u2019s refusal to intervene underscored a broader strategy during the shutdown, now the second-longest in US history. Throughout the impasse, Trump has selectively reprogrammed federal funds to protect priorities central to his political agenda \u2013 such as paying troops and law enforcement officers, including those involved in immigration enforcement \u2013 while allowing other programs like Snap to starve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bracing for the loss of federal nutrition assistance, food banks and pantries, already stretched thin amid rising food prices, were bracing for a surge in demand. Officials in states such as Virginia, Maryland, Louisiana, Hawaii and Minnesota have announced plans to tap state and local funds to provide food aid and assist food banks in the interim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governors of\u00a0New York,\u00a0Delaware,\u00a0Oregon\u00a0and\u00a0Virginia\u00a0have declared the looming crisis a state of emergency, while states set aside millions to help offset the lapse of federal benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnlike Washington Republicans, I won\u2019t sit idly by as families struggle to put food on the table,\u201d New York\u2019s governor, Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In California, the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, said he would deploy the\u00a0California national guard\u00a0under his command to support food banks and announced\u00a0$80m\u00a0in state support to fill the Snap gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two federal judges issued back-to-back rulings on Friday in separate cases ordering the\u00a0Trump administration\u00a0to use contingency funds to continue paying for food stamps during the government shutdown. A federal judge in\u00a0Rhode Island\u00a0on Friday afternoon blocked the\u00a0Trump administration\u00a0from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans, in a case brought by a group of US cities, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[12487,147,6850,9330,11941,5483,2848,7960,10830,7340,11381,6693,10507,8440,10309,11337,11606,5799,913,6576,9309,6738,5787,6496,10426,9643,7782,2264,8049,10453,10406,6663,12298,9222,6094,5910,12005,7519,10342,9792,2603,851,9683,989,5612,990,1674,10944,10390,10722,6575,7540,12373,5807,8501,12477,912,12372,12860,11533,7465,12151,6261,10329,9178,13182,7231,184,6348,9268,2354,594],"class_list":["post-47329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-agenda","tag-agriculture","tag-aid","tag-banks","tag-bill","tag-boston","tag-california","tag-case","tag-civil-case","tag-columbia","tag-complaint","tag-congress","tag-court","tag-crisis","tag-delaware","tag-demand","tag-democracy","tag-democrat","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-dollars","tag-families","tag-flood","tag-food","tag-food-prices","tag-fund","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-government","tag-groceries","tag-guard","tag-hawaii","tag-households","tag-hunger","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-initiative","tag-judge","tag-judges","tag-law","tag-louisiana","tag-maryland","tag-massachusetts","tag-millions","tag-minnesota","tag-money","tag-new-york","tag-offset","tag-oregon","tag-prices","tag-removed","tag-republicans","tag-reserves","tag-rhode-island","tag-risk","tag-senate","tag-shutdown","tag-snap","tag-snap-benefits","tag-stamps","tag-state-of-emergency","tag-sued","tag-suspension","tag-tornadoes","tag-trade","tag-troops","tag-trump-administration","tag-union","tag-united-states-president-donald-john-trump-jr","tag-us","tag-virginia","tag-washington","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47331,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47329\/revisions\/47331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}