A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump’s administration to fully fund a critical food assistance program by Friday after finding that the government failed to address any administrative issues that have prevented states from quickly sending out partial benefits to millions of Americans.
Last week, the administration was ordered to use emergency funds to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program running and “expeditiously resolve” any clerical issues that could delay that money from getting to nearly 43 million Americans who rely on the program for grocery staples.
But Trump “stated his intent to defy the court order” by claiming that SNAP payments would only be sent out when the shutdown ends, and the administration “did not do anything” to address any administrative issues they knew would pose a problem, according to Rhode Island District Judge Jack McConnell.
As a result, “people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened and needless suffering will occur,” with SNAP funding lapsing for the first time in the nation’s history, McConnell said during a virtual court hearing Thursday. “This should never happen in America.”
The government now has until Friday to fully support SNAP and ensure that the money is swiftly routed to states to disperse to beneficiaries. Shortly after the ruling, lawyers for the Trump administration filed an appeal.
The Department of Agriculture “created this problem,” McConnell said.
“They knew there would be a long delay for partial SNAP payments,” he said, pointing to the government’s court filing stating that it could take weeks or months for states to get up and running.
Waiting another day is "simply unacceptable,” according to McConnell.
On Thursday evening, vice-president JD Vance branded it an “absurd ruling” when he and Trump were asked about it at a White House dinner with Central Asian leaders.
“You have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of the Democrat government shutdown...what we'd like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government of course, then we can fund SNAP,” Vance told reporters.
“We can also do a lot of other good things for the American people, but in the midst of a shutdown, we can't have a federal court telling the President how he has to triage the situation.”
Before two federal judges intervened, the administration intended to freeze funding for the program entirely during the government shutdown, claiming that it did not have legal authority to tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds. On a notice on its website last month, USDA claimed that the “well has run dry” and that “there will be no benefits issued November 1.”
Judges disagreed and urged the government to quickly dispense the money to states to prevent millions of Americans from going hungry.
Last week, McConnell ordered the administration to tap into emergency funds — which totaled more than $5 billion — to keep SNAP running during the government shutdown, at least partially, and to identify other potential federal funds to support the program, absent any new funding from Congress.
The government said $4.65 billion can be used to cover 50 to 63 percent of SNAP benefits for people who are currently enrolled, which could leave many low-income families empty-handed.
But state officials were left to navigate what they saw as unnecessarily complex rules to get up to speed, and the USDA has erroneously calculated that many families stood to receive nothing from a partially funded SNAP plan, further slowing down payments.
Trump also appeared to undermine his administration’s move, stating on his Truth Social account that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.” USDA chief Brooke Rollins also said that sending out benefits would be a “cumbersome process” unless the government opens, which would mean “families get their FULL benefit much more quickly.”
The administration had failed to prepare to avoid this exact scenario, McConnell said.
The government has a “mandatory” obligation to keep SNAP funded, and knew the program would require emergency support when the government shutdown started more than a month ago, McConnell said. Even when November 1 arrived, USDA “refused to use congressionally mandated funds” to prevent a funding lapse, he added.
A lawsuit brought by nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups in Rhode Island argued that the federal government is legally required to continue funding the program as long as there are contingency funds to support it. Another lawsuit from Democratic officials across the country similarly argued that the Trump administration was illegally pulling the plug on SNAP by resisting those contingency funds.
Last week, McConnell had ordered the government to either fully fund the program, or come up with a plan to partially fund those benefits using contingency funds — as long as the government could make timely payments to states.
“The defendants have not done that,” according to Kristin Bateman, a senior counsel with Democracy Forward, among the groups suing the administration in Rhode Island.
The administration is “trying to leverage people’s hunger to gain partisan advantage in the shutdown fight,” she said during Thursday’s hearing. “People are waiting for the assistance they need to be able to afford food and there’s no time to wait.”
SNAP funds, which are distributed by the federal government to states each month, support the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, which serves millions of households, with a vast majority of recipients being children and seniors.
Recipients receive an average of $188 per person per month, or about $6 per day, which is administered on prepaid cards that can be used to pay for groceries.
The program provides roughly nine meals for every one meal provided by a food pantry, according to anti-hunger advocates.
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