SNAP benefits must continue despite shutdown, judge tells Trump administration

A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ceasing to pay SNAP benefits that help feed 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown.

The oral ruling by Judge Jack McConnell came a day before the administration was set to cut off that food stamp assistance.

A Justice Department lawyer argued during a hearing that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program did not exist anymore because there were no congressionally appropriated funds for it as a result of the shutdown.

The lawyer, Tyler Becker, also argued it was the administration’s discretion whether to use $6 billion in contingency funds already set aside by Congress to continue issuing SNAP benefits.

“There is no SNAP program and, as a result, the government cannot just provide SNAP benefits,” Becker said.

But McConnell told the administration to use those contingency funds to maintain at least some of the SNAP benefits that are normally paid.

The judge also said the administration needed to examine whether other federal funds would be available to keep the program operating in the absence of a funding bill by Congress.

McConnell’s ruling granted a temporary restraining order to plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Providence against the Trump administration to maintain the benefits.

The Trump administration is likely to appeal the order.

“Today’s ruling is a lifeline for millions of families, seniors, and veterans who depend on SNAP to put food on the table,” the coalition of plaintiffs said in a statement.

“It reaffirms a fundamental principle: no administration can use hunger as a political weapon,” the coalition said. “This victory is about more than one program — it’s about the American values of fairness, compassion, and accountability that hold our democracy together.”

The plaintiffs include a group of cities, charitable and faith-based non-profit groups, unions and business organizations.

McConnell’s ruling came minutes after a federal judge in Boston, Indira Talwani, in response to a separate but similar lawsuit, said that plaintiffs in that case are likely to succeed on their claim that the administration’s “suspension of SNAP benefits is unlawful.”

Talwani said she was still considering the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order to maintain the benefits.

But she also ordered the administration to tell her by Monday if it would “authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November, and, if so, their timeline for determining whether to authorize only reduced SNAP benefits using the Contingency Funds or to authorize full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and additional available funds.”

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