President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP after a pair of judges’ rulings required it to keep the food aid program running.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs about $8 billion per month nationally.
It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly beneficiaries will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the nation’s largest food program, said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid out due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.
Other news regarding the government shutdown:
Trump says he ‘won’t be extorted’ by Democrats: During a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday, Trump said he would only negotiate on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies once the government was reopened. Trump’s comments signal the shutdown could drag on. Flight delays persist: The shortage of air traffic controllers amid the shutdown continues to lead to delayed flights into and out of the United States. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.Head Start preschools shutter: The shutdown is triggering a wave of closures of Head Start centers where students — who come from low-income households, are homeless or are in foster care — will miss out on preschool, where they are fed two meals a day and receive therapy vital to their development. Some centers say they’ll close indefinitely, while others are staying afloat with emergency funding. The government has been shut down for 34 days.