Reuters US Domestic
By Nate Raymond, John Kruzel and Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a judge's order requiring it to promptly fully fund this month's food aid benefits for 42 million low-income Americans during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
The administration filed an emergency request asking the justices to act within hours to put on hold a Rhode Island-based judge's order requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cover an expected $4 billion shortfall by Friday for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence on Thursday came after the administration said it would provide $4.65 billion in emergency funding to partially cover SNAP benefits for November. Full funding for the program costs $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday denied the Trump administration's request to pause McConnell's ruling, prompting the Justice Department to file an emergency request to the Supreme Court.
The appeals court delivered its ruling hours after the USDA informed states it would be making funds available to fully fund SNAP benefits.
The USDA sent the memo to states even as the Department of Justice urged the federal appeals court to block the judge's order that USDA by Friday use $4 billion set aside for other purposes to ensure Americans receive full rather than reduced SNAP benefits in November.
SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of November for the first time in the program's 60-year history. Recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like foregoing medications to stretch tight budgets.
SNAP benefits are paid monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line. The maximum monthly benefit for the 2026 fiscal year is $298 for a one-person household and $546 for a two-person household.
STATES BEGIN TO ISSUE AID
Several states including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts announced after the USDA issued its memo that they had directed state agencies to issue full federal SNAP benefits for November.
"President Trump should never have put the American people in this position," Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.
McConnell and another judge ruled last week that the administration must at least tap $5.25 billion in emergency funding to partially fund SNAP benefits.
On Saturday, McConnell said the USDA could either use agency contingency funding once it resolved the "administrative and clerical burdens" of paying reduced benefits, or tap additional funding to fully pay out November's SNAP benefits.
The USDA opted on Monday to use only contingency funding, which after subtracting $600 million for states' administrative costs would leave $4.65 billion to cover benefits.
On Thursday, McConnell agreed with a coalition of cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward that the USDA failed to consider it could take weeks or months for some states to change their systems to process reduced benefits, prolonging delays.
The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, accused the Trump administration of withholding SNAP benefits for "political reasons."
The plaintiffs said in a Friday brief that the administration showed disregard for the harm that would befall nearly one in eight Americans if the 1st Circuit agreed to halt McConnell's decision and allow anything short of full benefit payments to proceed.
"The Court should deny Defendants' motion and not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now," the lawyers wrote.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Leah Douglas and John Kruzel in Washington, Nate Raymond in Boston and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Rosalba O'Brien)
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