Single mother grapples with loss of SNAP benefits
The single mother is juggling the suspension of SNAP benefits while working full time and watching over her two daughters at a shelter.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court seeking to block a court order requiring the government to provide full SNAP food assistance benefits to millions of Americans by Nov. 7.
The administration made its request Friday night after the Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals declined to intervene.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island ordered the administration to pay the full amount of food stamps to states within one day.
The government argues that because Congress hasn’t passed this year’s budget, there is no legal basis to tell the government to “somehow squeeze $4 billion out of your metaphorical couch cushions.”
The Justice Department said in its appeal that the funding shortfall is a crisis that only Congress can solve.
And unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the justices told the justices, all beneficiaries of federal programs could rush to court to seek funding, leading to a “judicial statutory barrage.”
“While Congress’ core power is the power of the purse, the executive branch is tasked with allocating limited resources across competing priorities,” the Justice Department said in its appeal. “But here, the courts below have deemed the current closure to be a valid authorization to declare federal bankruptcy and to appoint a receiver charged with choosing winners and losers among those seeking a portion of the limited remaining federal funds.”
The judge said the U.S. Department of Agriculture could use a combination of emergency funds and other funds available to make full payments during the federal government shutdown.
McConnell said in the court order that the administration’s argument that it would not use funds earmarked for another nutrition program to fill the hole in November’s SNAP benefits is “impossible,” given that children’s programs are expected to be funded through at least May and that Congress could replenish funding by then.
In contrast, failing to utilize these funds to pay for the full amount of SNAP November food assistance creates a “very real and immediate risk that children will be deprived of food assistance today,” McConnell wrote.
The administration followed Mr. McConnell’s previous direction to use reserve funds for November’s SNAP benefits, but the funds only authorized partial payments.
Skye Perryman, president of the Democracy Forward Foundation, one of the groups suing over the funding, said the administration continues to seek to “take food out of the mouths of families, seniors, workers and children.”
“Even if the administration seeks to deprive the American people of nutrition through yet another appeal to the Supreme Court, we will continue to defend against them with effective legal action to ensure the interests of the American people,” Perryman said.
Contributor: Aisha Bagki
