A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by Friday using funds intended for child nutrition after chastising officials for not issuing partial benefits quickly enough.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell told Department of Justice lawyers during a hearing Thursday that they “did not comply” with his ruling last week in which he told the administration to at least issue partial SNAP benefits by Wednesday using the SNAP contingency fund. During the hearing, McConnell demanded the administration tap into the Section 32 Child Nutrition Fund to issue full benefits by Friday.
“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,” McConnell said. “Therefore, the court grants the plaintiff’s motion to enforce and consistent with its prior orders, orders the administration to make the full snap payment to the states by tomorrow, Friday, November 7, utilizing available Section 32 funds in combination with the contingency funds.”
The administration appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit hours after the hearing.
Justice Department lawyer Tyler Becker argued that the administration had complied with McConnell’s ruling, stating they had resolved any burdens by Tuesday and that it was up to the states to issue out the benefits. McConnell was dismissive of Becker’s argument, saying, “I appreciate the argument, let me give you my ruling.”
“[The Department of Agriculture] cannot now cry that it cannot get timely payments to beneficiaries for weeks or months because states are not prepared to make partial payments. USDA arbitrarily and capriciously created this problem by ignoring the congressional mandate for contingency funds and failing to timely notify the states,” McConnell said.
McConnell also rejected the Trump administration’s claims that Section 32 funds are not meant to be a contingency fund for SNAP and dismissed concerns about Congress being able to replenish the funds.
“Considering that, one, Congress with bipartisan support, has always funded the child nutrition program, and two, once a new appropriation bill is passed, ‘amounts appropriated for SNAP could be transferred to the child nutrition program account to effectively reimburse her for the amounts that account covered,’” McConnell said.
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“More importantly, without snap funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry. This should never happen in America. In fact, it’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” he added.
With the government shutdown now the longest in history and with no clear end in sight, the administration had warned that SNAP benefits would not be able to be paid out for November. The announcement prompted multiple lawsuits and orders requiring the administration to use other funds to pay for SNAP.