Federal judge orders Trump administration to make full November SNAP payments

Originally Published: 06 NOV 25 16:14 ET

By Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge in Rhode Island said Thursday that the Trump administration must fully cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

“People have gone without for too long,” US District Judge John McConnell said during a hastily called hearing Thursday. “Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable.”

Nearly 42 million Americans receive food stamps. Payments are made on a staggered basis over the course of a month.

McConnell’s order comes days after the administration, in response to an earlier order from him, said it would provide only partial food stamp benefits for November by tapping into some $4.65 billion in a contingency fund maintained by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The judge said the government had not worked quickly enough to release the funds pursuant to the requirements of his earlier order and that the government had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it decided earlier this week that it would not provide the full benefits this month.

Under McConnell’s new ruling, the government must tap into billions of additional dollars held by the US Department of Agriculture in a separate pot of money so full SNAP benefits can be paid. The judge said those payments needed to be made to states, which administer the program, by Friday.

“Without SNAP funding for the month of November, 16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry,” McConnell said. “This should never happen in America. In fact, it’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here.”

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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