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Some Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants have begun to receive partial or full benefits for November, according to state officials.
“Partial benefits were distributed today, Nov. 7. Beneficiaries should check the balances on their cards,” the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said on its website.
SNAP, which has about 42 million participants nationwide, involves people receiving money every month on debit-like cards known as EBT that can be used to purchase produce and other food at grocery stores that accept the payment.
“November SNAP benefits have been loaded onto EBT cards,” the Oregon Department of Human Services said on its website.
California officials said that some people have received their November benefits, while Wisconsin officials said that all participants have received full benefits.
Other states said on Thursday that they expected at least some residents on SNAP to receive benefits on Nov. 7 or soon after.
Still others said they were waiting on funds from the government.
“New Jersey is prepared and ready to issue SNAP benefits upon the federal government releasing the funding,” New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman said in a statement.
“Once full federal funds are released, we have been assured by our vendor that SNAP funding will be available on EBT cards within hours.”
The Trump administration had been poised to suspend the food stamp program for November in light of the federal government shutdown, which started on Oct. 1.
Officials stated that they were not permitted to use money from a contingency fund or tariff revenue to fund the benefits, unless instructed to by Congress.
A federal judge on Oct. 31 said the administration had to use the contingency money at least, which would partially fund benefits for November. He said the money must be distributed by Nov. 6.
Administration officials said they were distributing the money, but that due to adjustments to state systems necessary to send out partial payments, it could take weeks or even months before people see the benefits on their cards.
The judge said on Thursday that his order had not been followed and ordered the federal government to pay for full November benefits, an amount estimated to be between $8.5 billion and $9 billion.
Federal lawyers, in an emergency motion on Friday, asked an appeals court to intervene and pause the order.
“The district court insisted that USDA find some way to fund SNAP, as a mandatory entitlement. But the statute specifically provides that SNAP payments shall not exceed the funds appropriated for the program,” the government lawyers said in the motion.
“There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions.
“If every beneficiary of a mandatory spending program could run to court and force the agency to transfer funds from elsewhere, the result would be an unworkable and conflicting plethora of injunctions that reduce the federal fisc to a giant shell game.”
The case was brought by a coalition of groups and cities, including Baltimore.
In a response to the motion, lawyers for the coalition told the court that officials failed to comply with the judge’s order, “and the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that their decision to make partial payments despite the attending weeks or months of delays was arbitrary and that—given the emergency circumstances of the government’s own creation—this left only one choice available to mitigate the irreparable harm to Plaintiffs and millions of other Americans: utilize the undisputedly available funds to make full November payments.”
