(Oct. 31) WASHINGTON – Two federal judges ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release money for the food stamp program, which was due to end benefits on Saturday because the Trump administration said the shutdown left it without funding.
That may bring relief to 42 million low-income Americans, including 440,000 Minnesotans who use food stamps to supplement their nutritional needs but will no longer have that help as of Saturday because the Trump administration said the shutdown resulted in a cut off of money. But that relief is not likely to be immediate.
A federal judge in Boston on Friday gave the USDA until Monday to come up with a plan to at least partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the official name of the food stamp program.
Nearly simultaneously, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the program must be funded by tapping about $5 billion in SNAP emergency funds and perhaps the monies.
Twenty-five states, including Minnesota, filed the Boston lawsuit seeking the release of SNAP contingency funds.
“Using hungry children as bargaining chips isn’t just cruel, it’s unlawful. That’s why we’re taking Trump to court,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said when the states filed suit earlier this week.
While U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the Trump administration’s refusal to release those funds is likely unlawful, she did not give the states that sued the USDA everything they wanted.
The states sought the release of USDA funds on Saturday; the day most SNAP recipients receive November benefits on their EBT cards. Instead, Talwani ordered the USDA to decide by Monday whether it will authorize that release.
Still, Democrats like Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, hailed the court decision.
“As we’ve said from the start, the Trump administration was acting illegally,” said Craig, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. “They have congressionally appropriated dollars to issue SNAP benefits in November and made the cruel decision to let Americans go hungry instead.”
On Friday, Ellison said that while the court rulings mean the USDA will be required to use its $5 billion contingency fund to continue to provide SNAP benefits nationwide, the fund does not have enough money to pay for full SNAP benefits throughout the month of November.
But Talwani said the USDA has access to additional funds that it can use to continue to provide SNAP benefits once the initial $5 billion fund is exhausted. The court ordered the USDA to evaluate whether and how it will use that additional fund to continue to provide benefits throughout November, and to report their decision by no later than Nov. 3.
“Today’s ruling made it clear that Donald Trump’s Department of Agriculture has multiple ways to continue feeding hungry Minnesotans during the shutdown,” Ellison said in a statement.
At a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins declined to say whether she would comply with a court order that required continued SNAP funding.
“We are looking at all the options,” Rollins said.
Johnson and other GOP congressional leaders have agreed with Rollins that the administration had no legal authority to use SNAP contingency funds to continue to provide nutritional help to low-income families.
Yet the Trump administration has shifted other monies to address the shutdown’s impacts — despite questions over the legality of the transferring of such funds. Those include a transfer of Pentagon funds to continue paying members of the U.S. military while other federal workers receive no paychecks.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add comment from Ellison.
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