(Reuters) -The Trump administration said it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans on Monday after two judges ruled it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown.
The administration laid out the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who ordered it last week to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the USDA is complying with U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order and “will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today.”
But while the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25 billion in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8 billion to $9 billion per month.
The administration said $600 million would be used to fund states’ administrative costs in administering SNAP benefits, leaving $4.65 billion that will be obligated to cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments.
The partial payments are unprecedented in the program’s history. A USDA official warned in a court filing that at least some states, which administer SNAP benefits on a day-to-day basis, would need weeks to months to make system changes that would allow them to provide the reduced benefits.
SNAP benefits are paid out monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line, or $1,632 a month for a one-person household and $2,215 for a two-person household in many areas.
The prolonged government shutdown, for which Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other, has put SNAP benefits in jeopardy. The shutdown began October 1.
The USDA had said funds were insufficient to pay full benefits, and announced last month that it would suspend SNAP benefits starting November 1.
But McConnell and another judge in Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, said on Friday the administration had the discretion to also tap a separate fund holding around $23 billion.
Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in a court filing the agency is carefully considering using those funds but determined they must remain available for child nutrition programs instead of SNAP.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)
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