Judges order Trump administration to keep funding SNAP. When will food benefits reach Washington and Idaho families?

WASHINGTON – Two federal judges on Friday ordered the Trump administration to continue paying for food assistance that was set to end amid the government shutdown, but it was unclear when families in Washington state and Idaho would receive the benefits.

Judges in Boston and Rhode Island gave the administration until Monday to figure out how to proceed.

About 42 million low-income Americans rely on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program. Nearly 930,000 Washingtonians and almost 125,000 Idahoans receive the monthly benefits, the agencies that administer them in each state say.

The regular federal funding that states use to administer the benefits – roughly $8 billion a month, or an average of $187 per recipient – ran out Friday as the government shutdown reached the one-month mark. The Trump administration has declined to use $6 billion in emergency funding Congress had set aside to fund SNAP, but federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ordered in back-to-back rulings that those funds must be used to continue the program.

In an email on Friday, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said the agency, which administers SNAP in Idaho, was still awaiting guidance from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

“We don’t have formal guidance about that at this time,” spokesman AJ McWhorter said, in response to questions about how the state agency would respond to the rulings, when benefits would be disbursed and when it expected to receive such guidance.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services did not immediately respond to the same questions.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown was among 26 state attorneys general who sued the Trump administration this past Monday to force SNAP benefits to be distributed. In a statement following Friday’s ruling, Brown said that “the Trump administration acted unlawfully by not funding SNAP benefits.”

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston on Friday gave the Trump administration until Monday to decide how to pay at least partial SNAP benefits.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr., in Rhode Island, issued a restraining order and ruled not paying benefits would harm SNAP recipients and economies. McConnell ordered the administration to continue benefits “as soon as possible” and to come up with a plan for continuing payments by noon Monday.

“The court is giving them until Monday to come up with a plan to distribute SNAP benefits in full. And if they don’t, Washington state and AGs around the country will use the court system to hold the administration accountable,” Brown said. “SNAP is a vital resource that supports feeding kids, seniors and people living with disabilities. What the administration is doing is cruel and inhumane.”

Spokespeople for Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, and Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, didn’t immediately say when – or if – SNAP benefits would be restored in their respective states.

In a statement Friday, Ferguson said the rulings were a “big victory.”

“Multiple judges have made it clear: The Trump Administration must stop holding hungry families hostage,” Ferguson said. “The USDA has funds to provide these food benefits, and the Trump Administration needs to follow the law and do so.”

The governor’s office said the state is currently “working to digest the court rulings and get benefits flowing as soon as possible.”

Norah West, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, said last week that more than 540,000 households in the state receive benefits through the SNAP program. She said recipients in Washington received more than $173 million in benefits in September.

West previously said the state was seeking additional guidance from the federal government, including whether recipients would receive a prorated portion of their benefits if Congress reached an agreement to fund the government midmonth.

In an Oct. 24 letter, the USDA wrote that recipients would receive retroactive benefits “upon the availability of federal funding.”

Ferguson announced Tuesday he would direct $2.2 million per week for additional funding for food banks in the state if a deal is not reached by Nov. 1. The funds would be transferred from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.