"The U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 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 and it costs about $8 billion per month nationally."
"On Friday, judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ruled separately that the administration must continue to pay for SNAP. They both gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November. The USDA has a $5 billion contingency fund for the program, but the Trump administration reversed an earlier agency plan to use that money to keep SNAP running."
The USDA planned to freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1, saying it could no longer fund them because of the shutdown. SNAP serves about 1 in 8 Americans and costs about $8 billion per month. Many beneficiaries reload cards early and card-loading can take a week or more, so November benefits will be delayed regardless of court outcomes. Democratic attorneys general or governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia, plus cities and nonprofits, sued to keep payments running. Judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ordered SNAP payments to continue and allowed partial or full funding discretion. The USDA has a $5 billion contingency fund but reversed plans to use it; officials also point to a separate roughly $23 billion fund. U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell required at least contingency funding, continued existing work-requirement waivers, and asked for a progress update by Monday.
Read at www.npr.org
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