The Trump administration has committed to partially funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with a $4.65 billion payment using emergency funds, but a top USDA official has warned that the distribution of these reduced benefits could take anywhere from a “few weeks to up to several months” due to procedural hurdles.
The disclosure was made in a sworn court filing on Monday by a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer, following a federal judge’s order in Rhode Island last week mandating the administration to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP amid an ongoing government shutdown.
President Donald Trump posted on social media late Friday that he had asked the court to “clarify” the ruling regarding how to legally fund the program. RELATED: Trump Seeks Court Guidance To Fund SNAP Amid Shutdown, Blames Democrats For Delays
“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding,” Trump wrote.
The committed $4.65 billion payment will cover approximately half of the households relying on the food assistance program, according to a declaration from Patrick Penn, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. This amount will also completely expend SNAP’s contingency funding.
“Defendants have worked diligently to comply with the Court’s order on the short timeline provided by the Court and during a government shutdown,” DOJ lawyers wrote in Monday’s filing.
The administration also indicated it is facing a $4 billion shortfall compared to the expected $8 billion cost to fully fund SNAP for November. Officials are declining to tap an additional bucket of emergency funds held by the USDA, which runs SNAP, to bridge the gap.
Penn outlined the rationale for this decision, stating that using $4 billion from an alternate fund—tariff revenue known as Section 32, typically reserved for child nutrition programs—would pose an “unacceptable risk.”
“USDA has determined that creating a shortfall in Child Nutrition Program funds to fund one month of SNAP benefits is an unacceptable risk… because shifting $4 billion dollars to America’s SNAP population merely shifts the problem to millions of America’s low income children that receive their meals at school,” Penn wrote.
The Deputy Under Secretary also warned that exhausting the contingency fund means “no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely.”
Beyond the budget concerns, Penn emphasized that distributing the $4.65 billion payment could be significantly delayed. He cited “procedural difficulties that States will likely experience which would affect November SNAP benefits reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts.”
The potential delay means that recipients of the food assistance program may not receive their partial benefits for weeks or possibly months, complicating financial planning for millions of Americans reliant on the program during the shutdown.
READ: USDA Sec. Rollins Says 1,000s Of Illegal Migrants Removed From SNAP, Vows ‘Drastic Reform’
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