As the federal shutdown entered day 35, President Trump threatened to defy a federal court order requiring the administration to use a contingency fund to continue paying for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP, to some 42 million recipients—about one in eight Americans across the nation.
On Nov. 4, the president posted a message on his social media account stating he would ignore an order from Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island to restore full or partial SNAP benefits. But only hours later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revised the president’s comments, telling reporters that the administration is “fully complying” with the court and would provide partial food stamp payments in November.
Trump’s Agriculture Department could have used additional funds to provide full benefits to those enrolled in the food stamp program, but the agency declined to do so. As a result, families will receive about half as much in funds to purchase food this month than they ordinarily get—possibly only after weeks or months of delay. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Peggy Bailey, executive vice president for Policy and Program Development with the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, who talks about the Trump regime’s unprecedented attempt to block SNAP food assistance to the nation’s millions of poor families and possible solutions to end the ongoing government shutdown.
PEGGY BAILEY: While the administration has been saying that they don’t have a way to pay SNAP benefits in November, that is not true. Actually, there’s a contingency fund that’s available for their use for instances just like this. And not only is it available, but they’re legally required to use these funds in the case of an emergency such as during a government shutdown. And the administration has said, “Okay, since the courts are telling us we have to use these dollars, we will.”
One of the key problems though is that there’s only about $6 billion in the contingency fund and we know that SNAP benefits in November will cost about $9 billion. So there’s a gap there. So right now the administration is saying, “Yes, we will adhere to what the court is telling us and we will use these SNAP contingency funds. It’s going to take us a second because we’ve got to help states understand how much money they’re going to receive given that they’re not going to receive the full $9 billion.”
Unfortunately, the administration isn’t taking the next step, which would be to use other resources at their disposal to fill in that gap. Just because the contingency fund doesn’t fill the gap doesn’t mean the administration doesn’t have other ways to be able to meet the whole $9 billion that’s needed and make sure families stay whole with their food assistance benefits.
And I want to make really clear that this is the first time this has ever happened. There hasn’t been another time where we haven’t met the challenge and paid full benefits to families for SNAP and made sure that families were able to afford groceries. So this is historic and we’re hoping that even though the administration will pay this partial benefit, they’ll reconsider and fill in the gap so that families will receive their whole month of November benefits.
SCOTT HARRIS: Thank you for that. And I did want to ask you about sort of the overall picture, Peggy. The ongoing government shutdown was triggered by Senate Democrats’ refusal to vote for a temporary funding bill for the federal government unless President Trump and the Republicans made a deal to restore important subsidies for the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans. And without these subsidies, individual and family monthly health insurance premiums will skyrocket. They’ll rise anywhere I’ve read, between 75 percent and 114 percent, meaning millions won’t be able to pay for their health insurance anymore. A lot of people without health insurance, and these people, if they get sick, they’re going to go to the emergency room. It’s going to cost either way. It’s a complicated situation, but on the other hand, it’s kind of simple.
PEGGY BAILEY: Exactly.
SCOTT HARRIS: Peggy, how should this shutdown be resolved in your opinion?
PEGGY BAILEY: I think, Scott, you hit on the point that this is actually quite simple. It wouldn’t take much for Congress to agree that we should extend the enhanced premium tax credits that people have been receiving for the last few years to help them afford their health insurance. And so, I think, hopefully Congress will realize that we can do all of the things: We can keep the government open. We can extend these premium tax credits, the enhanced premium tax credits. So the people who have been getting their tax credits since the beginning of the Affordable Care Act will still continue to get them.
During the pandemic, Congress and the president expanded eligibility and deepened the premium tax credits for people. And it’s that piece that we’re debating right now. And, another key part of keeping the government open is putting in guardrails—Congress putting in guardrails that say to the administration that a deal is a deal. That, when we decide to appropriate dollars, the administration is required to spend them.
And that refers to what has also been happening since January where the administration has illegally either not spent money. Illegally let go of federal employees. Illegally stopped entire government programs and has threatened to move rescission packages through Congress in ways that are at least legally suspect—If not, some of them are also illegal themselves.
And so in this shutdown, Congress needs to do all of the things: Protect against those illegal actions that the administration has been taking to not spend money that Congress has appropriated. Extend the premium tax credit enhancements. And all of that can help keep the government open in this country. We can do multiple things at once and we shouldn’t pit people against each other. Whether it’s people who need food assistance, people who are eligible for these premium tax credit enhancements. Or all those that are being hurt by government funding being illegally taken back. We need to be able to do all these things at once.
For more information, visit cbpp.org.
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