A federal judge in Rhode Island directed the Trump administration to use emergency money to fund November food aid benefits for millions of Americans.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr.’s oral order Friday came just before the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, is set to run out of money this weekend. Trump administration officials have not yet indicated whether they will appeal the ruling.
McConnell, an Obama appointee, affirmed the complaint of several cities and nonprofits that sued USDA over its decision not to use emergency money to support food aid during the government shutdown. The move, plaintiffs argued, “needlessly plunged SNAP into crisis.”
His order went further than that of another federal judge in Massachusetts, who issued a near-simultaneous ruling Friday afternoon asking the Trump administration to decide by Monday if it would voluntarily fund at least some SNAP benefits.
“Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program,” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, also an Obama appointee, wrote, noting that USDA can pull from multiple sources of funding to fully support November benefits.
The White House and USDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump officials have insisted they don’t have the authority to use a $5 billion contingency fund and don’t have enough money to pay for the nearly $8 billion required for November SNAP benefits. On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins declined to confirm whether she’d comply with a court order to fund food aid.
“We’re looking at all the options,” she told reporters.
The decision is up to the White House, where officials have been mulling what to do based on how the court rules, according to three people with direct knowledge who were granted anonymity to share private details.
Even with the rulings, Trump officials say they won’t be able to roll out the contingency funds in time, meaning SNAP benefits will still lapse Saturday, even if the White House decides to comply with the order. It will still take days and, in many cases, weeks to get SNAP benefits to low-income Americans, especially since the administration has not stood up a system since the shutdown began to disperse any partial funds.
President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Democrats for the delay.
“All the Democrats have to do is say, ‘Let’s go,’” he told reporters. “And you know, largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats, but I’m president, I want to help everybody, I want to help Democrats and the Republicans. But when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look it’s largely Democrats, they’re hurting their own people.”
Josh Gerstein, Kelly Garrity, Kyle Cheney, Meredith Lee Hill and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
