The Trump administration said Monday it would use emergency funds to partially fund SNAP benefits for November but would not tap into other funds to provide full coverage.
The means the more than one in six Illinoisans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP benefits to buy groceries each month will get a smaller-than-normal share and have to wait days or weeks for their cards to be reloaded.
That’s bad news for Rockford home care aid Jasmine Winfrey, 34, who lives with her two children, Jayden and Yazmin. Winfrey says that with reduced SNAP benefits, she is unsure how she will put food on the table for herself and her kids.
“If I have to maybe not pay a few bills, then that’s what I have to do because my children cannot go hungry,” Winfrey said. “I am just very heartbroken, and I just don’t know where me and my children’s next meal may come from, so I’m very unsure and I’m afraid."
Two federal judges issued separate rulings Friday, both ordering the administration to continue funding SNAP amid the federal government shutdown. Both judges set a Monday deadline for the administration to decide whether it would provide full or partial coverage and determine where the money would come from.
The judges required that the government use emergency funds appropriated by Congress to at least partially cover November benefits, leaving open the option to draw from additional funding sources to fully fund payments for the month. U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. in his order cited the availability of $23 billion in funds created by Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act amendments of 1935.
USDA plan
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told the judges Monday that it would use $4.65 billion in emergency funds to cover half of the benefits eligible households receive for the month.
Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, or FNCS, at the USDA filed a declaration saying the department would not tap into other funding sources to provide full benefits to recipients.
“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” Penn wrote in the declaration to McConnell.
The department said in the declaration that it had “carefully considered” using some of the Section 32 funds referenced in the judge’s order but ultimately decided against it.
While acknowledging the legality of transferring funds between programs within FNCS, the department argued that Congress intended for the $23 billion fund in question to support child nutrition programs including national school lunch and breakfast programs.
“Shifting $4 billion dollars to America’s SNAP population merely shifts the problem to millions of America’s low-income children that receive their meals at school,” the USDA wrote.
There are no additional blocks of funding within FNCS available to supplement SNAP, the declaration noted.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth responded with disappointment to the partial funding decision on social media, referencing her own family’s experience with SNAP.
“As someone who grew up counting every last SNAP dollar, this is intentionally cruel,” Duckworth wrote. “Hungry children deserve full bellies. Not crumbs.”
Timing of benefits
The USDA said states will be responsible for re-calculating revised benefits for eligible households and said it would provide revised tables to state agencies on Monday. As of the time of publication, the Illinois Department of Human Services, which administers SNAP in Illinois, did not respond to confirm receipt of the new benefit information.
In its declaration, the USDA acknowledged challenges with updating benefits, predicting that it could take states anywhere from a few weeks to several months to provide the reduced benefits.
“Given the variation among State systems, some of which are decades old, it is unclear how many States will complete the changes in an automated manner with minimal disruption versus manual overrides or computations that could lead to payment errors and significant delays,” the declaration stated.
IDHS said it expected November SNAP benefits to be delayed by days or weeks. It added the decision to fund reduced benefits “will make it significantly more complicated for states to issue the funds.”
Benefits left on cards from previous months can still be used to purchase food as usual, according to IDHS.
The department created a new SNAP Federal Impact Center page with information and resources for those affected by the reduction in benefits, including links to food banks and pantries across the state. Food banks and pantries received $20 million in support from the state, but it will not be enough to replace the lost and delayed SNAP benefits.
For mothers like Winfrey, food pantries are not a substitute for the fresh food and variety that SNAP benefits provide — things she said are important for her 9-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son.
“It’s important that my children have a meal every day because it will affect their belly, and they probably won’t be able to think straight if they don’t have food, (or) function at school,” Winfrey said.Amid the uncertainty created by delays and reduced benefits, some Chicago businesses are offering free meals this week to SNAP recipients. Manny’s Deli, a restaurant located near the University of Illinois, began offering free family meals to anyone with a SNAP card this week.
After strong public support online, the sandwich shop set up a fundraiser which has already received over $48,000 in donations. The move also received a shoutout from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on the Senate floor Monday afternoon.
“Why has Manny’s found it necessary to feed those on SNAP? Because President Trump became the first president in history to deliberately disrupt the processing of ... SNAP benefits,” Durbin said.
“Thankfully, Manny’s delicatessen in Chicago is willing to do what the Trump administration is not, working to make sure that nobody in their city goes hungry.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.