Federal judge orders Trump admin to use emergency funds to pay SNAP benefits amid shutdown

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program amid the government shutdown.

As a result of the month-long government shutdown, SNAP benefits for November have not been funded. U.S. District Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, blocked the Trump administration from cutting off SNAP benefits, and ordered the roughly $5.25 billion emergency fund be used to cover it, The Hill news outlet reported.

The fund will not fully cover November SNAP benefits that 40 million people receive, which will cost the government upwards of $9 billion. 

McConnell rejected arguments that the emergency fund can only be used for hurricanes or other uncontrollable catastrophes.

“SNAP benefits have never, until now, been terminated,” McConnell said. “And the United States has in fact admitted that the contingency funds are appropriately used during a shutdown and that occurred in 2019.”

McConnell ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute the emergency funds “timely or as soon as possible” and give him an update by Monday.

“If there’s no appropriation, there really is no program,” Justice Department attorney Tyler Becker said at the hearing on Friday. “The government cannot just add funding when no program exists.”

“Such a partial payment has never been made — and for good reason,” the administration said in court filings. “It would require each State to recalculate the benefits owed based on the reduced funds available. USDA estimates that such a calculation, involving complicated system changes and processes dictated by statute and regulation, would take weeks, if it can be done at all.”