Two federal judges ruled Friday afternoon that it’s illegal for the Trump administration to withhold nutrition-assistance benefits due to the government shutdown, but it’s unclear when Vermonters will see those benefits arrive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture notified states earlier this month that, starting Nov. 1, it would not be disbursing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Vermont and 24 other states challenged that decision in a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts last week. The judge in that case said Friday that the Trump administration’s decision is “contrary to law.”
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani gave federal officials until Monday to tell the court how it planned to resolve the situation.
In a separate ruling out of Rhode Island, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell issued a temporary restraining order that enjoins the USDA from cutting off SNAP benefits.
Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark said the rulings are a victory for the approximately 63,000 low-income Vermonters who rely on SNAP benefits. She said she does not know when those benefits will be restored.
“In terms of the logistics of how they’re going to do that, it would be nice to hear from the Trump administration considering [Nov. 1] is the deadline … but we haven’t at this point in time heard from them,” Clark said Friday afternoon.
A panel of key state lawmakers and Republican Gov. Phil Scott allocated $6 million earlier this week to maintain SNAP benefits for two weeks. But the Department for Children and Families says it might not be able to transfer that money to recipients’ Electronic Benefits Transfer cards until Nov. 7.
Miranda Gray, a deputy commissioner at the department, said in an email Friday that the state won’t use that money if the Trump administration releases the federal funding.
She said the state hopes to learn more about the USDA’s plans on Monday.
“DCF is monitoring developments in the federal litigation but is prepared to move ahead with plans to disburse the state payment pending determinations by the federal government to issue SNAP benefits,” Gray said.
Lawmakers and the governor allocated $250,000 to bolster supplies at local food banks in the meantime. Anore Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, said that figure falls well short of the lost buying power SNAP recipients will experience in the meantime.
“It is not going to be enough,” Horton said Friday.
Horton said it’s affirming that judges in both cases indicated that the plaintiffs have a high likelihood of success in winning their cases against the Trump administration. But she said those rulings do not necessarily provide the relief food-insecure Vermonters need.
Susan Bourne, of Chester, relies on SNAP benefits and visits her local food shelf once a week for fresh produce. She described the uncertainty as “debilitating.”
“For people to have to worry about where their food is coming from, for us now having a government that is shut down and arguing with each other at the expense of people eating, is really pretty farfetched and pretty nefarious, as far as I’m concerned,” Bourne said.
Bourne, who lives in independent senior housing, said she was grateful for the state’s efforts to avoid an interruption in benefits, but she’s still unnerved by what she called a “manufactured food crisis.”
“It’s happening … in the month of November, the month of family, friends, food and Thanksgiving. And it’s really kind of backhanded, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
The Trump administration has argued that, because Congress has yet to authorize SNAP funding for the federal fiscal year that began Oct. 1, USDA can’t issue benefits.
But Congress previously appropriated $6 billion in “contingency” funding for SNAP. And the judges in both cases said federal law requires USDA to use those contingency funds now.
The contingency fund is enough to cover about two thirds of the $9 billion in SNAP benefits set to go out in November, which means benefits could be reduced even if USDA releases the money.
