A coalition of small businesses, faith-based nonprofits and small governments returned to court Nov. 4 after the Trump administration gave mixed signals about its compliance with a judge’s order to resume food stamp payments during the government shutdown.
The group filed its initial lawsuit Oct. 30 demanding release of emergency funds to continue the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for its 42 million recipients. A federal judge in Rhode Island directed the administration the following day to immediately resume the funding.
The administration’s response has been unclear. It initially informed the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island it would make only partial payments that would take weeks or months to distribute, but President Donald Trump struck a more defiant tone Nov. 4 in a rambling social media post.
“SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly ‘handed’ to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
But in a press briefing held the same day, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt first said “the administration is fully complying with the court order” before adding partial payments would be made until Democrats agree to end the shutdown, which has been caused by Republican leadership refusing to guarantee continuation of health insurance benefits through the Affordable Care Act.
The process of “digging into a contingency fund” will take time, she explained. “The best way to get the full amount of SNAP benefits to those beneficiaries is for Democrats to reopen the government.”
The plaintiffs in Rhode Island State Council of Churches et al. v. Rollins et al responded with an emergency request that the court require the administration to immediately and fully release SNAP funds.
“Time is of the essence when it comes to hunger,” according to the motion filed by Democracy Forward and the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island, the groups representing the coalition.
“Time is of the essence when it comes to hunger.”
“Forty-two million people in this country who rely on the (SNAP) for basic nutritional needs — including children, senior citizens and veterans — are now four days into November without any prospect of receiving their SNAP payments for weeks or even ‘several months,’ by defendants’ own account, because of defendants’ course of conduct.”
Because the original restraining order didn’t foresee the administration’s attempt to stretch partial nutritional supplements over weeks or months, the plaintiffs asked the court to enforce its order or to rule that denial of full benefits is “arbitrary and capricious.”
Skye Perryman
“The Trump-Vance administration continues to play politics with people’s lives through failing to ensure SNAP payments are expeditiously available,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said.
“This is immoral and unlawful. The political posturing should stop now. The administration needs to fully fund SNAP benefits so people can eat, today. 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.”
The Rhode Island-based litigation is the second of two lawsuits filed against the administration for its decision to end food stamp benefits for the remainder of the shutdown. The first was brought by 25 American states against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its claim “the well has run dry” for SNAP beneficiaries.
The Oct. 28 action was filed by Washington, D.C., and the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
The lawsuit notes SNAP benefits have been continued during previous shutdowns — including in 2018 during Trump’s first term in office — and that states will be harmed by the requirement to continue administrative tasks related to the program.
Trump’s decision to withhold food supplements during the shutdown is just the latest blow to hungry Americans under his administration. In March, USDA cut $500 million in funding for food banks, and Trump’s comprehensive spending bill passed in July slashed about $186 billion from SNAP over the next decade.
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