(The Center Square) – Court battles are being waged over food assistance as the longest U.S. federal shutdown continues.
A U.S. District Court judge Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s effort to claw back Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and punish states that released the money.
The order came on the same day as a news conference in which attorneys general from California, New York, New Jersey and Minnesota discussed a temporary restraining order they requested Sunday in a filing against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was requested by 24 attorneys general and three governors on the same day that the federal shutdown seemed destined to end. Senators Sunday voted 60 to 40 to advance legislation to reopen the government. It’s the first of the bills to end the shutdown, and the revised legislation will need to go back to the U.S. House for its vote.
The shutdown was in its 41st day on Monday. As Congress dealt with it, attorneys general talked to reporters about their request for a restraining order in response to the USDA threatening to withhold federal funds for SNAP.
“The whiplash the president and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins have given Americans in recent weeks, the steps they’ve taken to prevent vulnerable families from putting food on the table, are unnecessary, unconscionable and unlawful,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during Monday’s news conference. “We refuse to stand by and allow it to continue without a fight.”
Besides California, New York, New Jersey and Minnesota, the request for a temporary restraining order was filed by attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Last week, two federal courts ordered the USDA to use emergency contingency funds to fund SNAP. But under Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ direction, only partial funding was committed to fund the program for November.
Bonta argued Rollins’ department had access to $60 billion in contingency funding that could have gone to fully fund SNAP benefits in November.
“They chose not to,” Bonta said. “The USDA’s partial benefits plan was unworkable. It would have taken weeks or months for millions of Americans to receive any benefits.”
In the meantime, funds were starting to come in for SNAP recipients, according to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. The USDA then issued guidance telling states it was going to attempt to follow the courts’ orders, but went on to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene to put an emergency stay on a lower court’s ruling that full payments had to be made.
“California fought to protect access to food for its residents,” said an email sent on Nov. 6 from the California Department of Developmental Services, which helps adults with developmental disabilities. “This court decision helps our community to continue buying groceries without interruption.”
On Friday night, the USDA said states must immediately take those funds back under threat of steep penalties.
On Sunday night, the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island rejected a request from the USDA to pause full payments of SNAP benefits while an appeal is pending. That pause lasts for 36 hours before full payment for SNAP is required, according to Bonta.
On Monday morning, the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts also paused the USDA’s Nov. 8 guidance ordering states to undo actions to disburse SNAP funds.
Bonta said he and the other state attorneys general planned to appear in court later on Monday to argue their case against the USDA.
“Between Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, the USDA issued formal guidance four distinct times, each providing our states with new directives that were contrary to its earlier guidance,” Bonta said during the press conference. “Those contradictory messages underscore that USDA’s actions have been arbitrary, they’ve been capricious, and it demonstrates why we need the court to step in to provide clarity and concrete guidance.”
Bonta, along with New York State Attorney General Letitia James, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, voiced displeasure with the USDA’s about-face as it changed its mind about using emergency contingency funds to pay for the federally-funded SNAP program, known as CalFresh in California.
“This battle is happening at a time when food prices are up, when insurance premiums are going up, when rent is high, housing prices are high, and with a president who promised to lower costs,” said Ellison. “It’s a sad day when the president of the United States and the ag department are willing to do anything to deny people food.”
James said she also was concerned about grocery stores in New York state starting to turn away customers who buy groceries with electronic benefits cards, the debit cards they use to pay with their SNAP benefits. She said she issued cease-and-desist letters to ensure those stores that normally take SNAP beneficiaries payment via EBT cards continue to do so.
“We put out a consumer alert letting New Yorkers know that this denial was unlawful and telling them how to respond,” James said. “As New Yorkers begin to receive their full November benefits this week, I fear we could begin to see more of this illegal denial to honor SNAP benefits.”
Some legislators have voiced support for families who rely on SNAP and CalFresh benefits in their districts in recent days.
“We want to make sure that people have food,” Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-San Luis Obispo and chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health, told The Center Square. “We want to see people get the food that they need, and we don’t want them to have to make a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ between food and health care, as many are having to do right now.”
Addis continued she was “very hopeful the president will see fit to feed the people of the United States.”
California’s congressional representatives also spoke out in recent days about the ongoing government shutdown and how it has impacted so many who rely on SNAP benefits.
“This is a crisis brought on by the government shutdown,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, during a recent press conference. “Millions of Americans across the country are reliant in their safety net on SNAP. This decision will impact 30% of constituents in my district.”
Republican members of the Legislature and Congress were not available to speak to The Center Square before press time on Monday.
