“Trump Admin Backs Down (Kinda): SNAP Gets Partial Funding After Judges Step In”
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After weeks of tension and a whole lot of side-eye from the public, President Donald Trump’s administration announced Monday that it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) better known as food stamps, after two federal judges told them they had to keep the program running, the Associated Press reports.
The move comes right as millions of Americans were staring down empty fridges and full-blown panic, wondering how they’d buy groceries come November 1. SNAP, which helps feed about 1 in 8 people across the country, costs roughly $8 billion a month to operate, money that was supposed to be frozen… thanks to the ongoing government shutdown.
Now, thanks to those court rulings, the USDA says it’ll put some funds back into the system. The big question is how much and how soon folks will actually see the money hit their EBT cards.
In many states, the process of loading benefits takes up to two weeks, meaning some families could still face serious delays. On average, SNAP users get about $190 a month per person, and for a lot of households, that’s the difference between eating and not.
Before the court decisions dropped, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had already told states not to expect November benefits, triggering a mad scramble across the country. Food banks braced for massive demand. States started digging into their own budgets to front emergency cash. Communities rallied because when the system fails, people step up. On top of this, lawsuits started pouring in.
Federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island both ruled Friday that the Trump administration had to use a $5 billion reserve fund to cover at least part of the program’s costs.
Judge John J. McConnell Jr., out of Providence, Rhode Island, made it clear: if the government wanted to go all in and fully fund the program, payments needed to go out by Monday. But if they only planned to partially cover the costs, they’d have until Wednesday to get it together.
Still, that “partial” tag on the funding has a lot of folks uneasy. With more than 42 million people relying on SNAP. From working families to seniors and veterans a half measure doesn’t go far when full stomachs are on the line.
Democratic governors and attorneys general from 25 states, along with D.C., took the administration to court, arguing that the federal government has a legal duty to keep the program running. Cities and nonprofits joined in too, saying the pause would’ve been catastrophic for communities already struggling to make ends meet.
So for now, there’s a little sigh of relief butt not a deep one. The money’s coming, but not all of it. And for millions of Americans, that means the grocery line just got a little more uncertain.
Because at the end of the day, no one should be wondering if politics will decide whether they get to eat.