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| Rural communities are often more dependent on SNAP to meet basic food needs. (The Daily Yonder graph, from 2015 U.S. census data) |
The Department of Agriculture had a contingency plan to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the federal shutdown, but the 55-page 'lapse in funding' document recently disappeared from the USDA's website, reports Raymond Fernández of NOTUS. Rural counties are particularly vulnerable for any SNAP pause because their populations are more dependent on the program.
Despite the 'lapse in funding' plan, the USDA now claims its emergency fund can't be legally used to pay for SNAP during the shutdown. States working to cover a federal SNAP benefits pause with their own
funds were warned by the USDA that the federal government will not
reimburse them for any SNAP-pause spending.
In response to the USDA's refusal to access the contingency funds, a bipartisan group of two dozen states filed a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts, hoping the judge will compel the USDA to use the contingency funds to provide November SNAP benefits, report Tony Romm and Maya Shwayder of The New York Times.
Proceedings in the states' lawsuit began Thursday, with the Trump administration "staunchly defending its decision to stop paying food stamps during the
government shutdown, telling a federal court that it could not tap a
tranche of available funds to provide aid to millions of poor Americans
in November," Romm and Shwayder explain. "The arguments at times appeared to frustrate and confound a federal judge, who promised to rule soon."
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