US to pay reduced food aid benefits, but warns of weeks or months delay

 

Nov 3 (Reuters) — The administration of President Donald Trump announced on Monday that it will partially fund November food benefits for millions of Americans. However, officials warned that some states may take weeks or even months to calculate and distribute the reduced payments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) outlined its plan in a federal court filing in Rhode Island, following a judge’s order on Friday requiring the government to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

According to the filing, many states — which are responsible for administering SNAP — will need time to update their systems to determine and issue partial payments. The USDA noted that such partial benefits are unprecedented in the program’s 60-year history, which currently supports nearly 42 million low-income Americans.

 Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, stated that implementing these system changes could take “a few weeks to several months.”

Contingency Funds

A group of Democratic-led states sued the administration last week, demanding that contingency funds and other resources be used to continue SNAP benefits after the USDA announced it would suspend payments beginning November 1.

The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed Monday that the USDA will comply with the court order and deploy the full $5.25 billion in SNAP contingency funds. However, the administration has declined to use other available funding sources that could fully cover the program’s monthly cost of $8–9 billion.

Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward and attorney for the plaintiffs, said the group is evaluating legal options to secure full payments. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the leading Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, also urged the administration to fund the program fully, saying the government “should stop playing politics with hunger.”

Of the contingency funds, $600 million will go towards state administrative costs, leaving approximately $4.65 billion to cover about half of eligible recipients’ normal benefits.

Unprecedented Payment Process

States must calculate reduced benefit amounts and communicate them to their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) processors, who will load the adjusted benefits onto recipients’ cards. Conduent, the EBT processor for 37 states, stated it is prepared to move quickly once it receives updated data.

SNAP provides monthly benefits to Americans earning less than 130% of the federal poverty line — defined as $1,632 per month for one person and $2,215 for a two-person household in many regions.

Judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts recently ruled that the administration could draw from an additional $23 billion in separate funds. However, the USDA argued those funds are reserved for child nutrition programs and should not be used for SNAP at this time.