By Nate Raymond and Leah Douglas
BOSTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration cannot suspend food aid for millions of Americans during the ongoing government shutdown, two federal judges ruled on Friday, saying the government must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits.
The dual rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island came in a pair of lawsuits seeking to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s suspension on Saturday of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP or food stamps.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been trading blame for the prolonged shutdown, which has put SNAP benefits in jeopardy.
It was not immediately clear whether the rulings mean that benefits will be paid on November 1.
Both judges ordered the administration to report back to them on Monday on how it will comply with their decisions.
Trump said on social media that the federal government likely does not have legal authority to pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, and that his lawyers are asking courts “to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”
“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding,” Trump wrote.
SNAP benefits are available to 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. States are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the benefits, which are paid out monthly.
JUDGES SAY EMERGENCY FUNDING CAN BE USED
The USDA has said insufficient funds exist to pay full benefits to 42 million low-income Americans, as they cost $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month. The administration said the agency lacked authority to pay them until Congress passes a spending bill ending a government shutdown that began October 1.
But U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, at the end of a hearing in a lawsuit brought by cities, nonprofit organizations and a union, said the administration’s decision not to tap $5.25 billion in contingency funds to fund November benefits was arbitrary.
“There is no doubt and it is beyond argument that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn’t already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food, for their family,” McConnell said.
He said the agency must distribute the emergency money “as soon as possible,” and if the money is insufficient, the agency should determine if money from a separate fund with around $23 billion could be used.
Minutes earlier, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ruled that the administration was wrong in saying it was legally barred from using the contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits during the shutdown. The Boston ruling came in a lawsuit brought by 25 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia.
The judge, who like McConnell was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said the “suspension of SNAP payments was based on the erroneous conclusion that the contingency funds could not be used to ensure continuation of SNAP payments.”
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY DISPUTES DEMOCRATS ON FUNDING
The USDA’s shutdown plan, released last month, had said contingency funds were available to keep funding SNAP benefits if Congress did not enact spending legislation to avert the lapse in funding that began October 1.
But the department last week updated its website to say that no benefits would be issued on November 1 and that “the well has run dry,” prompting the filing of the lawsuits.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Friday morning that the argument by Democrats in Congress and Democratic-led states – that the USDA has money to spend on November SNAP benefits – was a “lie.”
“It is a contingency fund that can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved,” Rollins told reporters, speaking on Capitol Hill alongside House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
During a Thursday hearing, Justice Department attorney Jason Altabet warned that partial payments, unprecedented in the program’s history, could be difficult, saying that officials were “legitimately scared” about whether the antiquated systems some states use could handle their distribution.
“The agency thinks it would be catastrophic,” he said.
Both McConnell and Talwani indicated, however, that the administration had the ability to fund SNAP benefits in full if it used its discretion to tap other funding to cover the shortfall.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Rami Ayyub, Deepa Babington and Edmund Klamann)
