Trump threatens to withhold food aid as US cities, non-profits ask judge to intervene

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump created confusion on Nov 4 when he said that food assistance aid for millions of Americans will be given out only when the federal government shutdown ends, as lawyers for cities and non-profits urged a federal judge to force the White House to fully fund the benefits.

Mr Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap) benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

The Republican president’s threat to withhold Snap benefits for 42 million Americans came a day after the US Department of Agriculture said it would use emergency funding to pay for reduced benefits in November after a judge blocked its plans to suspend payments during the shutdown.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Nov 4 press briefing that the administration is fully complying with the court order and that Mr Trump was referring to future Snap benefits in his post.

“The recipients of these Snap benefits need to understand it’s going to take some time to receive this money,” Ms Leavitt said.

“We are digging into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war, and the president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future,” she said.

The prolonged government shutdown on Nov 4 entered its 35th day,

matching a record set during Mr Trump’s first term

for the longest in history, as Republicans and Democrats in Congress continue to blame each other for the standoff, which has put Snap benefits in jeopardy.

US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island had given the administration the option of either using US$5.25 billion (S$6.8 billion) in emergency funding to provide partial benefits once it resolved “administrative and clerical burdens” or tapping additional funding to provide Snap benefits in full in November.

The USDA on Nov 3 said that, in light of his ruling, it would use the contingency funding to pay Snap recipients 50 per cent of their typical allotment.

The benefits typically cost US$8 billion to US$9 billion per month.

But the administration declined to tap other funding and said that it could take some states, which administer Snap on a day-to-day basis, weeks to months to calculate and distribute the unprecedented partial payments.

The USDA on Nov 3 issued guidance to states, instructing them to immediately calculate the reduced benefits and notify households of the reduction.

“This will be a cumbersome process, including revised eligibility systems, State notification procedures, and ultimately, delayed benefits for weeks, but we will help States navigate those challenges,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a post on X.

Lawyers for the cities and non-profits at the liberal legal group Democracy Forward in a motion on Nov 4 told Mr McConnell that the USDA’s statement about delays demonstrated that the administration had failed to resolve the “burdens” entailed by making only partial benefits available.

“Time is of the essence when it comes to hunger,” the lawyers wrote.

They urged Mr McConnell, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, to force the administration as a result to release funding in its entirety for November Snap benefits.

Mr McConnell scheduled a Nov 6 hearing to consider the request. REUTERS