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Two federal judges ruled Friday that the Trump administration must tap existing funds to keep the SNAP food assistance program running during the government shutdown, according to reporting from the Associated Press.
Those rulings came as Gov. Greg Abbott faced mounting pressure to authorize emergency funding for Texas SNAP recipients before the food benefits program pauses Saturday.
The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island said the Trump administration could decide whether to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sometimes called food stamps, partially or in full. The Trump administration has not yet said whether it will appeal the ruling.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had announced that it would halt the program, which serves more than 40 million Americans and about 3.5 million Texans, in November due to insufficient funding during the shutdown.
Texans will still face delays on getting their food benefits, Celia Cole of Feeding Texas said previously said in a statement.
“The reality is that, starting tomorrow, SNAP recipients across Texas will face delays in receiving benefits,” the statement said. “Ongoing lawsuits are not a swift solution to this crisis. If contingency funds are released, they represent only partial relief—and the administration has indicated it could take weeks to calculate and distribute them.”
SNAP benefits take three days to become available on Lone Star Cards that participants use to purchase food at grocery retailers. These funds become available on a staggered basis, where every day that the money is delayed affects around 128,000 Texans, Cole said.
The ruling came in response to a challenge from state attorneys general or governors in 25 states plus the District of Columbia, who said the administration was legally obliged to keep SNAP running. The decision extends to Texas SNAP enrollees, even though the state did not file a complaint.
The Trump administration said it did not have the legal authority to supplement SNAP using an emergency fund with about $5 billion, reversing a prior USDA plan to keep the program running during the shutdown. That plan was subsequently removed from the USDA website. The Democratic states argued that the administration must tap this fund, and it also has access to a separate pool with around $23 billion.
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