Trump administration will provide partial November food stamp benefits

From CNN's Tami Luhby and Devan Cole

A woman checks her balance left after purchasing food supplies with a California EBT card in Los Angeles, on Friday.Damian Dovarganes/AP

The Trump administration said today that it will provide partial food stamp benefits for November by tapping into the program’s contingency fund amid the ongoing government shutdown.

A US Department of Agriculture official said in a sworn statement that the agency will use $4.65 billion from the contingency fund to pay the November benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which he said will “be obligated to cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments.”

Recipients will not see the payments immediately.

In court papers submitted Monday, the administration said it decided against pulling funds from other sources of money to provide full SNAP benefits for November. The program costs a total of roughly $9 billion for the month, the agency has said.

The decision came after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the US Department of Agriculture last week to either start providing full November benefits to recipients or partial benefits if the agency opts to only draw on SNAP’s contingency fund.