Two federal judges told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in separate rulings Friday that it must start using billions of dollars in emergency funding to provide federal food assistance to poor American families despite the federal shutdown, but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.
Both Obama-appointed judges rejected the Trump administration’s arguments that more than $5 billion in USDA emergency funds could not legally be used to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for nearly 42 million Americans while the federal government remains closed. But both also left unclear exactly how the aid would be delivered, or when it would arrive, as millions of families will lose their benefits starting Saturday.
The two statements came almost simultaneously on Friday.
In Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani stopped short of granting a temporary restraining order to California and a coalition of 24 other Democratic-led states. But she ruled that the states were likely to succeed in their arguments that the USDA’s total cut of SNAP benefits — despite having billions in emergency funds available — was unlawful.
Talwani gave USDA until Monday to tell her whether they would approve “only reduced SNAP benefits” using the emergency funding — which the USDA said would not cover the total $8.5 billion to $9 billion needed for all benefits in November — or whether they would approve “full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and additional available funds.”
In addition, U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island granted a temporary restraining order at the request of nonprofits, ruling from the bench that SNAP must be funded with at least the emergency funds and requesting an update on progress by Monday.
The White House referred questions about the ruling to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the government would appeal the rulings.
The Massachusetts order was a victory for California and the other Democratic-led states, which sued over the interruption of SNAP benefits — formerly known as food stamps — as Republicans and Democrats continue to bicker over reopening the government in Washington.
However, it will not mean that all of the nation’s SNAP recipients — including 5.5 million Californians — will be spared a shortage of food assistance, state officials emphasized, as state and local food banks continued to prepare for a flood of needs that began Saturday.
On Thursday, California Atty asked whether a ruling in favor of the states would mean SNAP funds would immediately be loaded onto CalFresh and other benefit cards. Gen. Rob Bonta — whose office helped file the lawsuit against the state — said, “The answer, unfortunately, is no.”
“Our best estimates are [SNAP benefit] cards can be loaded and used in about a week,” he said, calling that delay “problematic.”
“It could be a week where people are hungry and need food,” he said. For new applicants to the program, it could take even longer, he said.
The statements came as the now months-long shutdown continued on Friday with no immediate end in sight. The Senate adjourned Thursday and there are no plans to reconvene until Monday.
It also came after President Trump on Thursday called on the Senate to end the shutdown by first ending the filibuster, a longstanding rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections to legislation. The rule has traditionally been favored by lawmakers as a means of blocking particularly partisan measures, and is currently being used by Democrats to resist the will of the current 53-seat Republican majority.
“Now is the time for Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option – Out with the Filibuster, and out with it, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Michael Flood, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, stood next to Bonta as members of the California National Guard worked behind them filling food boxes, and said his organization was preparing for huge lines next Saturday, the first of the month.
He said he expected long lines of families in need of food to appear outside food distribution sites across the region, much like they did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a disaster-like situation for us here in Los Angeles County, across the state of California and across the country,” Flood said.
“5.5 million Californians, 1.5 million children and adults in LA County alone, will be abandoned — illegally, unnecessarily, in a way that is morally bankrupt,” Bonta said.
Bonta blamed Trump and his administration for the shutdown, saying the USDA has billions of dollars in emergency funds designed to ensure SNAP benefits continue during emergencies and that he broke the law by not using those funds in the current situation.
Bonta said SNAP benefits have never been disrupted during previous federal government shutdowns, and should never have been disrupted during this shutdown.
“That was preventable,” he said. “Trump created this problem.”
The Trump administration has blamed the shutdown and threatened disruption of SNAP benefits entirely on Democrats in Congress, who have blocked short-term spending measures to restart the government and fund SNAP. Democrats continue to pressure Republicans to repeal massive cuts to subsidies that help millions of Americans afford health insurance.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, previously told The Times that Democrats should be the ones asked “when the shutdown will end” because “they are the ones who decided to shut down the government so they can use working Americans and SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ to pursue their radical left agenda.”
“Americans are suffering under Democrats,” Jackson said.
In opposing the states’ request for a temporary restraining order requiring the disbursement of funds, attorneys for the USDA argued that using emergency funds to cover November’s SNAP benefits would deplete funds intended to “provide critical support in the event of natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes,” and could actually cause more disruption to benefits in the future.
They wrote that SNAP needs between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month, and the USDA’s emergency fund only has about $5.25 billion, meaning it could not fully fund November’s benefits even if the emergency fund were freed up. Meanwhile, “no partial payment has ever been made — and for good reason,” because it would force each state to recalculate benefits to recipients and then recalibrate their systems to provide the new amounts, they wrote.
That “would take weeks, if it is even possible,” and would then need to be reversed to allow December benefits to be awarded at normal levels, assuming the shutdown is lifted by then, they wrote. “The disruption this would bring, with each state having to repeatedly reprogram its systems, would lead to chaos and uncertainty in the coming months, even after a period of decline ends,” they wrote.
Simply suspending the benefits so that they are immediately reissued when the shutdown ends is the smarter and less disruptive course of action, they argued.
At a hearing Thursday in the state case, Talwani had suggested that existing rules required government action to prevent the kind of suffering that would cause a total disruption of food aid, regardless of whatever political confrontation takes place between the parties in Washington.
“If you don’t have money, you tighten your belt,” she said said in court. “You’re not going to let everyone fall to their deaths because it’s a political game somewhere.”
In addition to suing the government, California and its leaders have rushed to ensure hungry families have something to eat in the coming days. Gov. Gavin Newsom donated $80 million to food banks to stock up on supplies and activated the National Guard to help package food for those who need it.
Counties have also been working to offset the need, including by providing additional funding to food banks and other resource centers and asking private sector partners for help.
Dozens of organizations in California have written to Newsom calling on him to use state funds to fully cover missing federal benefits to avoid “a crisis of unthinkable proportions,” but Newsom has suggested that is not possible given the size of the withheld funding.
According to the USDA, approximately 41.7 million Americans were served monthly through SNAP in fiscal year 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion. Of the 5.5 million California recipients, children and the elderly account for more than 63%.
This article contains reporting by the Associated Press.
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