Trump administration asks appeals court to immediately halt ruling on SNAP funding

A group of local governments and nonprofits is urging an appeals court to keep in place an order requiring the Trump administration fully pay for November SNAP benefits.

The Trump administration has asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay of a judge’s ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by today, saying they are saving additional funds to pay for child nutrition programs known as WIC.

The Trump administration requested that the appeals court issue a ruling by 4 p.m. ET today.

Judge orders Trump administration to fully fund SNAP benefits by Friday, rebukes Trump

At issue is whether a federal judge can compel the government to use $4 billion from Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935 to fund November SNAP benefits.

The Trump administration argues that those funds are needed to support WIC programs and that using that money to pay for SNAP would essentially “starve Peter to feed Paul.”

“Indeed, if every beneficiary of a mandatory spending program could run to court and force the agency to transfer funds from elsewhere, the result would be an unworkable and conflicting plethora of injunctions that reduce the federal fisc to a giant shell game,” they argued in their filing.

The groups that brought the suit pushed back Friday against the government’s argument.

“Defendants’ bald assertion that they will face irreparable injury is entirely unsupported, and they callously disregard the grave harm that will befall Plaintiffs and millions of Americans if they succeed,” they wrote, saying the $23 billion in remaining funds is more than enough to cover both WIC, which requires $3 billion a month to operate, and SNAP, which normally requires around $8.5 billion.

During a tense court hearing Thursday, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. accused the Trump administration of “withholding SNAP benefits for political reasons.”

Last week McConnell ordered the government to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP in time for the Nov. 1 payments to be made — but the administration, saying they had to save the additional funds for WIC, committed to only partially funding SNAP.

McConnell, in his ruling Thursday, ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP for the month of November by Friday. He directly rebuked President Donald Trump for stating “his intent to defy” a court order when Trump said earlier this week that SNAP will not be funded until the government reopens from the ongoing government shutdown.

In their court filing Friday, the Trump administration said that Trump was “just stating a fact,” and not using SNAP as leverage.

“The district court also accused the President of bad faith for declaring that full SNAP benefits would not resume until the government reopens. But that was just stating a fact–the appropriation has lapsed, and it is up to Congress to solve this crisis,” the filing said.

Trump administration will partially fund SNAP, but it could take months

The government has asked the circuit court to allow U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates SNAP, to continue with the partial payment of SNAP and to “not compel the agency to transfer billions of dollars from another safety net program with no certainty of their replenishment.”

McConnell himself denied a request from the government to stay his own decision, saying, “The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administration stay, is denied. People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable.”

“People have gone without for too long, not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” the judge said.