Two federal judges on Friday ruled that the Trump administration must use a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to cover the cost of SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans, including 459,500 New Mexicans.
Both judges, one from Massachusetts and one from Rhode Island, each ruled that the Trump administration could not withhold SNAP benefits in November and rejected the Trump administration’s claims that it could not access the funds for monthly payments.
However, the judges differed on when the funds should be released. According to the Hill, District Judge James McConnell ordered in a lawsuit brought by cities and nonprofits that the contingency fund must be used to cover some of the $9 billion required to make SNAP payments.
In Massachusetts, a 15-page decision by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, in a lawsuit brought by 25 states, including New Mexico, found that the Trump administration also acted unlawfully and that benefits must be paid out, but gave them until Monday to inform the court whether they will authorize reduced SNAP benefits using only the contingency funds or if they will pay out the full $9 billion in benefits using a mix of dollars from the contingency fund and money from other available suit.
Earlier this week, New Mexico signed onto the lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to suspend November SNAP benefits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture did so, claiming that because of the federal government shutdown, such money was not available to pay out the benefits. Plaintiffs argued, though, that SNAP benefits had been issued in all past government shutdowns and the USDA could use the contingency fund and transfer funding from other areas to pay out the benefits.
The USDA, though, claimed that under the law, the money from the contingency fund was only available for events such as natural disasters, and not to be used for monthly benefits during federal funding lapses.