On Oct. 28 a group of 23 Democratic attorneys general sued the Agriculture Department, to force it to use its $5.5 billion on hand in contingency funds to pay for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in November. The program would need $9.2 billion for full payments, but these attorneys general want the funds to be used to at least make partial payments to the 42 million people who rely on the program. The benefits are set to lapse on Nov. 1, which, if they do, will mark the first failure in the program’s 60-year history of the federal government making the food-assistance payments.
On Oct. 24 the Agriculture Department sent an email to states that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.” However, during previous government shutdowns, states were allowed to use these contingency funds to pay SNAP benefits, even in the longest-ever shutdown, from December 2018 to January 2019 during the first Trump administration. These contingency funds are meant to be held in case of natural disasters or other catastrophes, but the attorneys general argue that the law requires the funds to be spent.
