President Donald Trump appears to be defying two court orders to release reserve funds to keep food assistance programs open, insisting he will only provide nutrition assistance to low-income Americans once the government shutdown ends.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which serves one in eight Americans each month, was scheduled to be frozen on November 1 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on October 10 that it would no longer be able to fund the program if the shutdown continues.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
The U.S. government shutdown entered its 35th day on Tuesday, rivaling the longest in the country’s history.
Last week, federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island issued separate but similar rulings ordering the federal government to fund benefits from reserve funds. In response to the ruling, the Trump administration announced Monday that it would partially fund the country’s flagship food aid program with about $5 billion set aside in emergency reserves.
However, the president appeared to reverse his administration’s plan in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, saying he would only fund SNAP once the government reopens.
“SNAP benefits, which increased by billions of dollars (many times!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous tenure (due to the fact that they were randomly “handed out” to anyone who asked for them, rather than just giving them to those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will only be paid out if the Radical Left Democrats open up the government, which they could easily do and never did before! ” the president posted Tuesday morning.
SNAP, commonly known as food stamps, costs more than $8 billion each month to implement. Program participants receive an average of about $190 per month, and households receive an average monthly stipend of $356 for groceries. Rewards are usually loaded onto your debit card.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt appeared to dispute the president’s social media post Tuesday afternoon, saying the administration is “fully complying with the court order” but that releasing the funds would not be a quick process.
“Recipients of these SNAP benefits need to understand that it will take some time to receive this money,” Levitt said. “The president doesn’t want us to keep pouring into a reserve fund that doesn’t even have enough money to fund the entire program.”
The USDA announced Monday that it would use emergency funds to pay 50% of the regular allotment to SNAP recipients, building on Rhode Island U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s ruling that first ordered the government to fund SNAP, calling it a “onerous process” that would delay benefits.
Lawyers with the liberal legal group Democracy Forward told McConnell in a motion Tuesday that the USDA’s statements about the delay show the government has not resolved the “burden” associated with providing only partial benefits.
“Time is of the essence when it comes to hunger,” the lawyers wrote.
At a news conference Tuesday, Levitt reiterated that the government shutdown is a Democratic-led effort, arguing that Democrats are prepared to harm the country in order to score political points.
“Democrats are intentionally hurting American families, businesses, and workers with this shutdown to appease their radical left base and fight for free health care for illegal aliens,” she said.
More than 42 million Americans rely on food assistance. The Trump administration had said it would not use emergency funds to support the plan until ordered by the courts.
The U.S. government shutdown began on October 1 when Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a funding bill. Since then, the two parties have failed 14 times to agree on stopgap funding measures.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 54-44 against a “clean” continuing resolution passed by the House that would fund the government through Nov. 21.
Democrats hold minorities in both chambers and are trying to use the spending bill to force Republicans to negotiate on key health care costs.
Democrats want Congress to extend expiring subsidies and reverse cuts to Medicaid aid for low-income and disabled people before the U.S. health insurance period begins in November.
