More than 40 million Americans rely on the program to buy food each month.
Two federal judges on Oct. 31 said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is legally required to use emergency funds to pay out food stamps benefits during the government shutdown.
The Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program’s (SNAP’s) funding was set to lapse on Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown, potentially affecting the food security of more than 40 million Americans.
A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled from the bench that the program must be funded using at least the contingency funds. U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell also asked for an update on progress by Monday.
Likewise, a federal judge in Massachusetts gave the administration until Monday to specify whether it would partially pay for SNAP benefits in November with contingency funds or fully pay for them with additional funding.
“Congress appropriated $6 billion to SNAP in 2024 as a contingency reserve through 2026, ’to be used in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations,’” U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in her written order.
“This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program.”
Talwani also said that just because regulations allow the program to be suspended when there is no funding, that doesn’t mean the USDA can choose to suspend it while emergency funds are available.
The USDA was holding onto two separate sources of emergency cash. One worth $5 billion is earmarked for “natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes,” and another worth $23 billion was recently diverted from tariff revenue.
That second reserve of funds is meant to keep school meal programs going during the shutdown, the USDA said, along with the Women and Infant Children (WIC) program, which pays for infant formula and extra food for young children and their mothers.
Attorneys representing the USDA argued, in a hearing in Boston on Oct. 30, that using the emergency funds to pay SNAP benefits was a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which dictates how the government functions during a shutdown.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had told reporters on Oct. 31 that the suggestion that the USDA can use the emergency funds for SNAP “is a lie.”
“There is a contingency fund at USDA, but that contingency fund by the way doesn’t even cover, I think, half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP,” she said.
Rollins also said those funds “can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved,” and that even if they could be used, the debate on funding SNAP would resume in two weeks when that money runs out.
