Judge Orders Administration to Make Full SNAP Payments

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to find the money to fully fund SNAP benefits for November. The ruling by US District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. was in response to a challenge from cities and nonprofits complaining that the government was only offering to cover 65% of the maximum benefit. The administration said it would rely on $4.65 billion on emergency funding, the AP reports. It had announced last month that it would not pay benefits at all for November because of the federal government shutdown. The court gave the administration until Friday to make the payments. The administration previously said there could be a delay of weeks or months, Politico notes.

"The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP," McConnell said. "They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial SNAP payments and failed to consider the harms individual who rely on those benefits would suffer." Last week, two judges ordered the government to pay at least partial benefits using an emergency fund. The government initially said it would cover half before coming up to 65%. The plaintiffs want the benefits to be fully funded.

McConnell at one point referred to President Trump's statement that he might stop all food stamp payments until the shutdown ended. White House officials later retreated a bit from that threat, but the judge nevertheless cited the statement as showing Trump was not complying with the court's instructions, per the New York Times. "This should never happen in America," McConnell said.