Two federal judges have just ruled that the Trump administration must use contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.
The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.
The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their own funds to keep versions of the program going.
The Trump administration has long said it doesn’t have the legal authority to use the contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits during the prolonged Schumer Shutdown.
Hellbound and Down 