{"id":24617,"date":"2025-10-31T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24617\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T21:52:10","slug":"snap-back-nyc-pols-press-trump-to-obey-judges-order-that-usda-cant-suspend-food-aid-during-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/24617\/","title":{"rendered":"SNAP back? NYC pols press Trump to obey judge\u2019s order that USDA can\u2019t suspend food aid during shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Some\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Some 1.8 million NYC residents are due to be impacted by the lapse in federal SNAP funding on Nov. 1 <\/p>\n

Photo by Adam Daly<\/p>\n

New York officials are telling the Trump administration to obey a judge\u2019s order on Friday that it must continue funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operating during the ongoing government shutdown.<\/p>\n

A federal judge in Massachusetts, Idira Talwani, ruled on Oct. 31 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture likely broke the law in suspending SNAP food stamp payments. The administration must utilize contingency funds to sustain the program; SNAP provides food assistance to more than 40 million Americans, including 1.8 million residing in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a 15-page order<\/a>, Talwani wrote that SNAP benefits are mandatory under federal law and that Congress set aside $6 billion in multi-year contingency reserves available through 2026 to sustain operations if regular appropriations lapse. She said the law allows the department to reduce benefits if money runs short, but not to suspend them entirely.<\/p>\n

Talwani held that the plaintiffs, a majority coalition of 26 states, including New York<\/a>, have standing to sue, citing potential fiscal and administrative harm that would result if SNAP benefits were terminated.<\/p>\n

She directed the USDA to tell the court by Monday, Nov. 3, whether it will authorize at least reduced benefits for November and to outline how it plans to fund them.\n<\/p>\n

The motion for a temporary restraining order remains under advisement while the USDA considers its options, the ruling notes.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions of families rely on SNAP \u2014 or food stamps \u2014 to survive,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cThe administration tried to use the shutdown as an excuse to withhold food assistance from vulnerable Americans, but the court has made clear that the law requires those benefits to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government cannot simply walk away from its obligation to feed the people it serves,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will keep fighting until every family in New York and across the nation can put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who on Thursday declared a state of emergency<\/a> ahead of an expected food crisis, urged the Trump administration to immediately release the emergency nutrition assistance funds following the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo state should have to sue the federal government to ensure families can put food on the table,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cBut when Washington Republicans refused to act, New York took them to court to mitigate this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives for the USDA and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
\n\"\"Photo by Lloyd Mitchell\n<\/p>\n

Prior to the ruling, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins claimed <\/a>on Friday that the USDA\u2019s contingency funds do not cover \u201ceven half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP\u201d and that the contingency funds \u201care only allowed to flow if the underlying appropriation is approved.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the court filing, the monthly cost of SNAP benefits is approximately $8.6 billion, while the available contingency fund balance is about $6 billion.\n<\/p>\n

The judge also noted that in anticipation of a potential lapse, USDA published a \u201cLapse in Funding Plan\u201d on Sept. 30, 2025, in which it affirmed that SNAP operation should continue in the event of a government shutdown and that \u201cmulti-year contingency funds\u201d previously appropriated by Congress could be used to fund SNAP benefits if needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 1.8 million NYC residents are due to be impacted by the lapse in federal SNAP funding on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15861,426,9,56,63,65,64,10604,1069,12502],"class_list":["post-24617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ag-james","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-snap","tag-trump","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}