On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). On Friday, the Trump administration sought to keep the funding at bay.
The administration wants a federal appeals court to to stop a lower court’s ruling that would require it to fully fund SNAP by the end of Friday, per Fox News.
Justice Department attorneys asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to stay an injunction a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered Thursday.
The food aid program funds “food stamps” to 42 million low-income Americans.
U.S. District Judge John McConnell noted the need for food aid as well as distribution.
McConnell took the Trump administration to task for agreeing to fund 65% of the SNAP benefits.
“It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,” McConnell said Thursday.
Trump’s legal team filed an appeal Friday, saying the lower court order “makes a mockery of the separation of powers.”
It also accused McConnell of overstepping his powers as a federal judge.
“There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions,” DOJ’s lawyers said. They described his order as an “unprecedented injunction” and one that “makes a mockery of the separation of powers.”
“This is a crisis, to be sure, but it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action,” they said.
McConnell also said the Trump administration did not comply with his order last week. That order required USDA to fund the SNAP benefits before its funds were slated to lapse Nov. 1.
This is the first time funding has lapsed in the program’s 60-year history.
The government “did nothing to ensure that the money would be paid on Wednesday,” he said.
