The government’s lawyers argued that dispersing SNAP benefits would break a law
Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani may order the US government to allocate emergency funds to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that helps low-income households in the US secure food, reported the Associated Press.
Talwani told government lawyers during a hearing that if the federal government could not afford to pay the program’s costs, the government needed to find “an equitable way of reducing benefits,” per a statement published by AP News.
The hearing took place two days before the date on which the US Department of Agriculture intended to stop payments to SNAP. Twenty-five Democratic-led states had called for the program’s continued funding despite the US government shutdown.
The government claimed in court documents that partial payments necessitated complex benefit recalculations that could span weeks. Its lawyers also said that dispersing SNAP’s total benefits would break a law that keeps the government from funding programs without a congressional appropriation.
The government also said it was prohibited from dipping into a US$~5 billion contingency fund to sustain SNAP, reversing a pre-shutdown USDA plan indicating that money could be used for SNAP.
Plaintiffs argued that cutting off SNAP benefits would impact public health and education. Moreover, it would increase government health care costs and affect retailers reliant on SNAP payouts.
The states challenging the government said the contingency money could and should be applied to SNAP and that another US$~23 billion fund could be allocated.
Talwani indicated that applying emergency funds to sustain the program was the most sensible option.
“It’s hard to me to understand that this is not an emergency, when there is no money and a lot of people are needing their SNAP benefits,” the judge said in a statement published by AP News. “If you don’t have money, you tighten your belt. You are not going to make everyone drop dead because it’s a political game someplace.”
The states sought for SNAP to be sustained in their areas, but Talwani said her ruling would be applicable across the US on the grounds that program recipients should be given equal treatment regardless of their state of residence. Nonetheless, she warned the plaintiffs that even with an order permitting emergency funds’ use in SNAP, recipients could still be subject to smaller and/or delayed payouts.
“We are dealing with a reality that absent a 100% win for you, the benefits aren’t going to be there on Nov. 1,” she said in a statement published by AP News.
SNAP uses around US$8 billion monthly. To receive benefits, the net income of a four-person household must not exceed the federal poverty line of approximately US$31,000 a year.
