Two federal judges require Trump administration tap into emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

Originally Published: 31 OCT 25 14:03 ET

Updated: 31 OCT 25 14:46 ET

By Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $5.3 billion remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.

The SNAP program costs roughly $9 billion a month, so the orders will not cover all of the needed payments for November.

“There is no doubt that the … contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation.” US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP, it just does away with the funding of it.”

McConnell’s ruling came during a hastily scheduled hearing came minutes after US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston made a similar order. Talwani also said USDA is allowed to tap into another bucket of money to allow it to pay full benefits for November, but that decision is currently up to the administration.

“This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program. And while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, Defendants also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds … to avoid any reductions,” Talwani said in a 15-page order.

However, millions of recipients will still face delays in getting their benefits, which were scheduled to start being distributed on November 1. It will take time for the Department of Agriculture and states to get the money flowing again.

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that the government could continue to fund critical food aid beyond November 1, contradicting his administration’s prior insistence there was no money available to maintain the benefits.

“Well, there always is,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter about whether the administration could find funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, before arguing that it’d be simpler for Democrats to reopen the government. “But all the Democrats have to do is say, let’s go. I mean, they don’t have to do anything — all they have to do is say the government is open.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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