SNAP benefits must be fully paid, judge orders Trump admin

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to pay full SNAP benefits for November by Friday, rejecting the administration’s plan to partially fund the food stamp program for 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown.

“People have gone without for too long,” Judge Jack McConnell said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, where he issued the order.

McConnell said the Trump administration, which had already agreed to tap a congressionally authorized contingency fund to pay partial SNAP benefits, must also use so-called Section 32 funds that it had refused to tap earlier this week.

“The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur” if SNAP is not fully funded, said McConnell.

He noted in a written order that more than half of the program’s recipients are children, seniors and veterans.

“While the President of the United States professes a commitment to helping those it serves, the government’s actions tell a different story,” McConnell wrote.

“Faced with a choice between advancing relief and entrenching delay, it chose the latter — an outcome that predictably magnifies harm and undermines the very purpose of the program it administers.”

The order came after plaintiffs in the case urged him to reject the plan to pay only partial benefits, which the administration disclosed in a court filing in Providence on Monday.

The Trump administration later Thursday asked the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the judge’s new order, as well as an order he issued Friday directing the administration to make partial benefit payments as soon as possible.

McConnell at the hearing pointed to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday said that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

Trump’s post seemed to contradict statements by administration lawyers that the benefits would be partially paid for the month.

The White House later said there was no change in that plan, but also said it would take time to issue the partial benefits to recipients.

McConnell said that Trump’s post was effectively an admission that the administration intended to defy his prior order to seek out all possible funding sources so that full benefits could be paid.

The Trump administration last week said it would not use the contingency fund containing $4.65 billion to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. The total cost of full SNAP benefits for the month is around $8 billion.

The program, like other federal programs, has no currently appropriated money, as a result of Congress failing to pass a…