Boxes of sugary cereal fill a store’s shelves on April 16 in Miami, Florida (Joe Raedle/Getty Images).
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Boston ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to pause a food assistance program for 42 million people was illegal — but gave the Trump administration until Monday to respond to her finding before she decides on a motion to force the benefits be paid despite the ongoing government shutdown.
At nearly the same time Friday, a Rhode Island federal judge in a similar case brought by cities and nonprofit groups ordered USDA to continue payments and granted a request for a temporary restraining order.
However, experts and a key member of Congress said that some SNAP recipients still may see delays in their benefits because changes in administration from the federal government to states to vendors take time. There was also no immediate word from USDA on how it will implement the judicial orders.
In Massachusetts, in a Friday afternoon order, District Court of Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani said she would continue to take “under advisement” a coalition of Democratic states’ request to force the release of funds from a contingency account holding about $6 billion.
Her ruling came a day before a cutoff of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits to low-income households.
Because Congress is locked in a stalemate over a stopgap spending bill and did not appropriate money for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, administration officials say the program cannot provide federal funds beginning Saturday. In states, SNAP benefits are loaded onto cards on varying dates, but the cutoff would be effective for November benefits.
Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, called the administration’s conclusion it can’t provide SNAP funding “erroneous,” and said the reserve fund was sufficient for SNAP benefits to flow to states and the vendors that add money to debit-like cards issued to the program’s beneficiaries that are used to purchase groceries.
The law creating the program mandated that benefits continue, she said.
“Defendants are statutorily mandated to use the previously appropriated SNAP contingency reserve when necessary and also have discretion to use other previously appropriated funds,” Talwani wrote.
Talwani ordered the administration to say by Monday whether it would provide at least partial benefits for November.
Earlier Friday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was noncommittal when asked if the department would comply with an order to resume benefits, according to CNN.
Spokespeople for the USDA and the Department of Justice, which is representing the administration in the case, did not return messages seeking comment Friday.
The 25 states that sued were Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, Wisconsin Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The District of Columbia also sued.
Contingency fund can’t flow in shutdown, USDA chief says
At a press conference with U.S. House Republicans earlier Friday, Rollins said it was “a lie” that the contingency fund could be used to provide benefits.
“There is a contingency fund at USDA, but that contingency fund, by the way, doesn’t even cover, I think, half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP,” she said. “But it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded. It’s called a contingency fund, and by law, a contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing.”
The judges authoring Friday’s court orders disagreed with Rollins’ argument, which was also at odds with a shutdown plan her own department published on Sept. 30 before quietly deleting it sometime in October. The plan called for SNAP benefits to continue during a shutdown because the contingency fund existed.
“Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds,” the Sept. 30 plan said.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said benefit payments “will likely be delayed by several days or more” and blamed the situation on the administration’s refusal to spend from the contingency fund.
“The administration has chosen to hold hungry families hostage in their partisan political games,” she said in a statement. “It is cruel. It is shameful. And as federal judges in two states have now affirmed, it is illegal.”
Rhode Island case
In Rhode Island, where the judge granted a temporary restraining order, the advocacy group Democracy Forward, which was among those bringing the suit, praised the move.
“A federal court today granted a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump-Vance administration’s unlawful effort to halt the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the ongoing government shutdown,” the group said. “The decision ensures that millions of children, seniors, veterans, and families will continue to receive essential food assistance while the case proceeds.”
The judge in that case, John James McConnell Jr., said the administration’s actions violated a key federal administrative law against arbitrary and capricious executive action and federal spending laws “by disregarding Congress’s direction that SNAP must continue operating,” Democracy Forward said.
McConnell also was appointed by Obama.
Delays in benefits likely
Friday’s orders will likely not stop some SNAP benefits from at least being delayed, according to Lauren Kallins, a senior legislative director for state-federal affairs at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Even if the Trump administration immediately complied with McConnell’s order that benefits must be released, the process of moving money from the U.S. Treasury to states to vendors to beneficiaries takes time.
“Under the best of circumstances… it’s not a switch that can be flipped on once USDA decides to release funds,” Kallins, whose organization coordinates and advocates for bipartisan state lawmakers in every state, said.
States generally release SNAP funds to beneficiaries on a staggered basis, meaning that different beneficiaries receive their allotments on different days of the month.
With the situation unresolved a day before the new benefits month begins, some are certain to see at least delays in benefits, Kallins said.
“For people who get their allotments in the beginning of the month, there’s definitely going to… be a delay here,” she said.
Additionally, if USDA were to release money only from the contingency fund, it could take states time to determine how to distribute prorated benefits.
Congress no closer to resolution
On Capitol Hill, the parties appeared no closer Friday to reaching an agreement as the government shutdown stretched into its second month.
House Republicans continued to blame Democrats for the standstill, urging Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to get his caucus behind the House-passed GOP measure to reopen the government at last fiscal year’s spending levels.
“Republicans have done our part to end the Democrat shutdown, and now it’s time for Democrats to do theirs,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday morning.
“The path forward is simple — please, please, every American who is concerned about this, every American that is feeling the harm, you should call the Senate Democrats and tell them to stop the nonsense, echo the voices of the unions, of the airlines, of hardworking people everywhere, and tell them to stop doing this and open the government.”
Democrats have voted against the GOP measure, saying congressional Republicans must negotiate an extension of tax subsidies for those who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, leaving millions to see their premiums skyrocket when they get premium notices beginning Saturday.
This post was originally authored and published by Jacob Fischler, Ariana Figueroa, Shauneen Miranda from Missouri Independent via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
