Federal judge rules Trump must fully fund SNAP program by Friday

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food aid program by Friday, rejecting the administration’s effort to only partially fund the benefits program for some 42 million low-income Americans.

“People have gone without for too long,” U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell said in court Thursday. 

He scolded the Trump administration for failing to comply with the order he issued last week, which required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the SNAP benefits programs before its funds were slated to lapse on Nov. 1, marking the first time in the program’s 60-year history that its payments were halted. 

TWO JUDGES RULE TRUMP ADMIN MUST KEEP SNAP BENEFITS IN PLACE AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

The judge also said Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states. He ordered the USDA to tap other contingency funds as needed.

“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said Thursday. 

Trump administration officials said in a court filing this week that they would pay just 65% of the roughly $9 billion owed to fund the SNAP program for November, prompting the judge to update his order and give the administration just 24 hours to comply.

TWO JUDGES RULE TRUMP ADMIN MUST KEEP SNAP BENEFITS IN PLACE AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON

“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,” McConnell said. “That’s what irreparable harm here means.”

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