A federal judge in Rhode Island has told the Trump administration that it must use the contingency fund to disburse funds to SNAP recipients.
U.S District Judge John McConnell’s ruling comes after another judge ruled that the administration’s plan to not pay out benefits on November 1 is “unlawful.”
The result of lawsuit by a group of municipalities, business and union groups, and other charitable organizations, McConnell said that the USDA is required to fund the SNAP program. He also said that if the department sees that the money in the contingency fund is not enough, the agency must also use other resources to fund those payments.
“There is no doubt that the six billion dollars in contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation,” McConnell said. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP. It just does away with the funding of it. There could be no greater necessity than the prohibition across the board of funds for the program’s operations.”
He also noted that “irreparable harm” will be done if the program is not funded.
In reference to the administration’s claim that the contingency funds should be reserved in case of a natural disaster or other reason, the judge said, “It’s clear that when compared to the millions of people that will go without funds for food versus the agency’s desire not to use contingency funds in case there’s a hurricane need, the balances of those equities clearly goes on the side of ensuring that people are fed.”
Democracy Forward, the progressive legal advocacy group that represented the plaintiffs, applauded the ruling.
“Today’s decision affirms what both the law and basic decency require: the Trump-Vance administration must use its power to support people in America, not to harm them,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement, “The court’s ruling protects millions of families, seniors, and veterans from being used as leverage in a political fight and upholds the principle that no one in America should go hungry.”
The administration has until Monday at 12 p.m. to update Judge McConnell on its progress with the SNAP program funding.
