President Donald Trump on Nov. 4 said that benefits will not go to federal food stamp recipients until the government is reopened, as a coalition of plaintiffs urged a judge to take action.
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Benefits for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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In an email to The Epoch Times, the White House declined to elaborate on the position, which came after Trump administration officials told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it would spend approximately $4.6 billion in contingency money to partially fund SNAP benefits for November.
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Officials acknowledged being ordered to make the partial payments no later than Nov. 5 and said they would be working with states to send 50 percent of normal benefits to SNAP participants, who number about 42 million.
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said that states must recode their systems to adjust for the reduced benefits and that it could take states from a few weeks to several months to do so.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on X on Tuesday that “this will be a cumbersome process, including revised eligibility systems, State notification procedures, and ultimately, delayed benefits for weeks, but we will help States navigate those challenges.”
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She also urged Democrats to reopen the government.
Democrats in Congress have largely voted against measures that would end the government shutdown, which started on Oct. 1. Republicans on Nov. 3 blocked a resolution from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that would require the government to fully fund November SNAP payments.
In a Nov. 4 motion to U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who recently ordered the administration to at least partially fund the November payments, the Rhode Island State Council of Churches and other plaintiffs in the case said that McConnell should enforce his order, which stated that officials needed to “expeditiously resolve the administrative and clerical burdens” with partial payments if they chose to go that route, and “under no circumstances shall the partial payments be made later than Wednesday, November 5.”
“Because it is now clear that due to Defendants’ course of conduct, and by their own admission, undertaking a partial payment plan at this point cannot meet the Court’s directives or adequately remedy the harm Plaintiffs are suffering, the Court should grant Plaintiffs’ motion to enforce and should temporarily enjoin and compel Defendants to release the withheld funding, in its entirety, for November SNAP benefits,” the plaintiffs wrote.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the administration needs to fully fund SNAP benefits.
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“We should not need to go to court to force the administration to provide food all people are entitled to in this country, but here we are—back in court to demand that the administration acts consistent with the judge’s order,” Perryman said in a statement.
McConnell on Tuesday scheduled a hearing on the motion for the afternoon of Nov. 6. He also said the government must respond to the motion by the end of Wednesday.
“The President doesn’t get to pick and choose which court orders he complies with,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday after seeing Trump’s post. “The court said he has to start paying SNAP benefits, and he has to start paying SNAP benefits.”
