As predicted, Obama judge John McConnell just ordered Trump to use their emergency funds for the SNAP program, which expires because Chuck Schumer won’t reopen the government.
Here’s the news via The Hill:
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beginning this weekend because of the government shutdown, ordering officials to first spend an emergency fund.
The roughly $5.25 billion fund is not enough to fully cover November benefits for the food assistance program, which will cost the government upward of $9 billion.
But U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order prevents the administration from completely drying up the benefit for more than 40 million Americans starting Saturday, rejecting arguments that the emergency fund can be used only for hurricanes or other uncontrollable catastrophes.
“SNAP benefits have never, until now, been terminated,” McConnell said at a hearing. “And the United States has in fact admitted that the contingency funds are appropriately used during a shutdown and that occurred in 2019.”
He ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to distribute the emergency funds “timely or as soon as possible” and provide an update to the court by Monday.
Though the judge’s ruling takes the pressure off for now, it does not require the USDA to maintain the benefit once the emergency fund is depleted.
The administration’s refusal to spend the fund came under two lawsuits, one filed by 25 Democratic-led states and the other brought by a coalition of cities and private organizations.
McConnell, an appointee of former President Obama who serves in Rhode Island, is overseeing the second lawsuit.
The judge called this an emergency for people not getting the food benefit, and while I get that perspective, it’s not a true emergency. It’s Chuck Schumer refusing to fund the government, and that is who is truly at fault here.