How politics is putting SNAP and families at risk
SNAP, America’s food safety net, has become a bargaining chip in the Washington standoff. Reporter Sarah D. Wire explains what’s at stake.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is staying out of the fight over the funding of food benefits for now, as Congress’s deal to end the federal government shutdown is likely to be approved.
The court said on Nov. 11 it would not immediately rule on an order directing the Trump administration to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the government shutdown, and lawmakers said they could vote on it as soon as Wednesday.
The court put the district judge’s funding order on hold until Nov. 13, freezing the case without considering which side had the better legal argument.
Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson, a Boston-based judge, had previously suspended funding deadlines for district judges.cent The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was considering it. The request went to Justice Jackson, who presides over emergency appeals in that part of the country, putting one of the court’s three liberal justices in the awkward position of granting a request from the administration on an issue of greatest concern to Democrats.
Still, in his latest order, Jackson disagreed with the majority’s decision to extend the suspension of all food stamp benefits.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday to reopen the government through Jan. 30 and provide year-round funding for several agencies and programs, including food assistance and veterans benefits.
The Justice Department argued that the lower court threw a “highly inappropriate new variable” into negotiations over the closure, causing confusion within the SNAP program itself.
“Congress appears to be on the verge of breaking the deadlock, but the outcome is uncertain,” Attorney General John Sauer wrote in the Justice Department’s appeal. “The district court’s unlawful order risks upending that compromise and calling into question how countless important federal programs will be funded.”
U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island ordered the government to make full November payments to states by Nov. 7 using a combination of SNAP emergency funds and other funds.
The appeals court upheld McConnell’s ruling that the government’s concerns about using separate funds to cover SNAP shortfalls were outweighed by the risk that tens of millions of Americans would go without food.
Lawyers for the local governments, nonprofit organizations and others who sued the administration told the Supreme Court’s families there is no need to wait any longer for assistance.
“There is no good reason for the courts to intervene to prevent needed benefits from flowing to children, seniors, low-wage workers, veterans, and other people who rely on food,” the challengers wrote in response to the administration’s appeal.
The government’s argument that the judge’s order blocked negotiations for federal funds “simply confirms what has been clear all along: that the government is using SNAP to gain partisan political advantage in the shutdown fight,” they wrote.
