More than 40 million Americans wait to see when SNAP food assistance will restart
toggle caption Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
It's not yet clear when the 42 million Americans who rely on the federal food assistance program known as SNAP will get their benefits for November. The Trump administration faces a Monday deadline to tell two federal judges how it plans to restore funding for SNAP amidst the ongoing federal government shutdown.
But even once funds start flowing again, it could take several days or more to get benefits into the hands of low-income families who depend on SNAP to put food on the table.
About 1 in 8 U.S. residents get an average of $187 a month per person in SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Nearly 39% of recipients are children and adolescents under 18, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program.
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Citing the government shutdown, USDA froze funding for SNAP beginning Nov. 1 – the first time that's happened since the country's largest anti-hunger program began six decades ago. On Friday, two federal judges ruled that this pause is likely unlawful.
Both judges said that Congress provided more than $5 billion in emergency funds for exactly this kind of situation, and they rejected the Trump administration's argument that it could not legally use that money to keep SNAP going. It not only can use the money, but must, the judges said.
In Rhode Island, Judge John McConnell Jr. called for the contingency funds to be used as soon as possible. A second judge, Indira Talwani in Boston, said officials could also tap additional money from customs revenues, but she left that decision up to the Trump administration. Both judges gave the administration until Monday to come back with a plan for how it would proceed.
After the rulings, Trump posted on social media that his lawyers would seek clarity from the court on how to fund SNAP. And if they got it, "it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay," Trump wrote.
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