Trump Administration to Use Emergency Funds to Pay for SNAP Benefits

What Happened?

On Monday, the Trump Administration announced they would use emergency funding to cover the cost of funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. The move comes after a federal judge ruled that the government must use emergency funding for the SNAP program. The Trump Administration said the emergency funding would only cover SNAP costs for the first half of November before those funds ran out.

SNAP benefits are received by roughly forty-two million people in the United States annually, and the program costs the federal government about nine billion dollars per month.

Why it Matters

SNAP funds provide recipients with monthly allotments to purchase food, and those funds often come in the form of a SNAP card. Each month, the allotted balance is deposited into the account, and the recipient can use their funds to buy groceries at stores that accept SNAP cards. Just over ten percent of the U.S. population qualifies for SNAP benefits. Many SNAP recipients live on fixed incomes, and the loss of SNAP funding would have meant many could not afford to buy food to meet their daily needs.

Critics of the program charge that SNAP recipients rely on government welfare instead of working, but the federal government’s own data shows that many SNAP recipients have full-time jobs. Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly SNAP recipients who do not work, though many of those are past retirement age. Children under the age of eighteen are also eligible to be included in the calculation of benefits for recipients.

Funding for the SNAP program was jeopardized by the ongoing government shutdown, which could become the longest in U.S. history this week. The Senate is set to consider a potential spending bill on Monday, but if that does not pass, the shutdown will exceed the thirty-five-day mark, which is the current record for the longest ever. The potential loss of SNAP funding has put additional pressure on lawmakers from red and blue states because recipients are spread across the country. 

If the government shutdown were to extend beyond mid-November, the emergency funding for SNAP would be exhausted, and the program could face a wholesale stoppage. Because millions of people rely on SNAP benefits to have enough money to eat, an interruption of benefits could cause widespread hunger in the United States for the elderly, children, and pregnant women.

How it Affects You

As of Monday, SNAP recipients had not received any money for the month of November. Even though the Trump Administration has agreed to use emergency funds for the program, the transfer will likely take a few days to accomplish. Food banks and other charities across the country have already reported an increase in the number of people seeking help.