Judge to consider demand to force the government to keep funding SNAP food aid despite the shutdown

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Thursday will consider a motion that would require the Trump administration to continue funding the SNAP food aid program despite the government shutdown.

The hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani comes two days before the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it can’t continue funding it due to the shutdown.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their funds to keep versions of the program going.

Democratic state attorneys general or governors from 25 states, as well as the District of Columbia, challenged the plan to pause the program, contending that the administration has a legal obligation to keep it running.

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The administration said it wasn’t allowed to use a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it for the program, which reversed a USDA plan from before the shutdown that said that money would be tapped to keep SNAP running. The Democratic officials argued that not only could that money be used: it must be. They also said a separate fund with around $23 billion is available for the cause.

The program costs around $8 billion per month.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded after the ruling. That process often takes one to two weeks.

To qualify for SNAP this year, a family of four’s net income can’t exceed the federal poverty line, or around $31,000 per year. Last year, SNAP provided assistance to 41 million people, nearly two-thirds of whom are families with children, according to the lawsuit.

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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.