<\/p>\n
BOSTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration\u2019s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the government shutdown, even though residents in some states already have received the funds.<\/p>\n
A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through\u00a0the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.<\/p>\n
After a Boston appeals court declined to immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in.<\/p>\n
The food program serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes.<\/p>\n
Officials in more than a half-dozen states confirmed that some SNAP recipients already were issued full November payments on Friday. But Jackson’s order could prevent other states from initiating the payments.<\/p>\n
In Wisconsin, more than $104 million of monthly food benefits became available at midnight on electronic cards for about 337,000 households, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said. The state was able to access the federal money so quickly by submitting a request to its electronic benefit card vendor to process the SNAP payments within hours of a Thursday court order to provide full benefits.<\/p>\n
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said state employees \u201cworked through the night\u201d to issue full November benefits \u201cto make sure every Oregon family relying on SNAP could buy groceries\u201d by Friday.<\/p>\n
Hawaii had the information for November’s monthly payments ready to go, so it could submit it quickly for processing after Thursday’s court order \u2014 and before a higher court could potentially pause it, Joseph Campos II, deputy director of Hawaii\u2019s Department of Human Services, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe moved with haste once we verified everything,\u201d Campos said.<\/p>\n
Trump’s administration told the Supreme Court that the fast-acting states were \u201ctrying to seize what they could of the agency\u2019s finite set of remaining funds, before any appeal could even be filed, and to the detriment of other States\u2019 allotments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds,\u201d Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the court filing.<\/p>\n
Officials in California, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington state also said they moved quickly to issue full SNAP benefits Friday, while other states said they expected full benefits to arrive over the weekend or early next week. Still others said they were waiting for further federal guidance.<\/p>\n
The court wrangling prolonged weeks of uncertainty for Americans with lower incomes.<\/p>\n
An individual can receive a monthly maximum food benefit of nearly $300 and a family of four up to nearly $1,000, although many receive less than that under a formula that takes into consideration their income.<\/p>\n
For some SNAP participants, it remained unclear when they would receive their benefits.<\/p>\n
Jasmen Youngbey of Newark, New Jersey, waited in line Friday at a food pantry in the state\u2019s largest city. As a single mom attending college, Youngbey said she relies on SNAP to help feed her 7-month-old and 4-year-old sons. But she said her account balance was at $0.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody has cash to pull out and say, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to go and get this,\u2019 especially with the cost of food right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Later Friday, Youngbey said, she received her monthly SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n
Because of the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration originally had said SNAP benefits would not be available in November. However, two judges ruled last week that the administration could not skip November\u2019s benefits entirely because of the shutdown. One of those judges was U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who ordered the full payments Thursday.<\/p>\n
In both cases, the judges ordered the government to use one emergency reserve fund containing more than $4.6 billion to pay for SNAP for November but gave it leeway to tap other money to make the full payments, which cost between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the administration said it\u00a0would not use additional money, saying it was up to Congress to appropriate the funds for the program and that the other money was needed to shore up other child hunger programs.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s federal court order rejected the Trump administration\u2019s decision to cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, a decision that could have left some recipients getting nothing for this month.<\/p>\n
In its court filings Friday, Trump\u2019s administration contended that the judge usurped both legislative and executive authority in ordering SNAP benefits to be fully funded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers,\u201d Sauer told the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Some states said they stood ready to distribute SNAP money as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
Colorado and Massachusetts said SNAP participants could receive their full November payments as soon as Saturday. New York said access to full SNAP benefits should begin by Sunday. New Hampshire said full benefits should be available by this weekend. Arizona and Connecticut said full benefits should be accessible in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Officials in North Carolina said they distributed partial SNAP payments Friday and full benefits could be available by this weekend. Officials in Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and North Dakota also said they distributed partial November payments.<\/p>\n
Amid the federal uncertainty, Delaware’s Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer said the state used its own funds Friday to provide the first of what could be a weekly relief payment to SNAP recipients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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