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Supreme Court Extends SNAP Bl 11/12 06:34
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order blocking full SNAP payments,
amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments
resume.
(AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order blocking full SNAP
payments, amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid
payments resume.
The order keeps in place at least for a few more days a chaotic situation.
People who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed
their families in some states have received their full monthly allocations,
while others have received nothing.
The order, which is three sentences long and comes with no explanation on
the court's thinking, will expire just before midnight Thursday.
The Senate has approved a bill to end the shutdown and the House of
Representatives could vote on it as early as Wednesday. Reopening the
government would restart the program that helps 42 million Americans buy
groceries, but it's not clear how quickly full payments would resume.
Ruling follows path of least legal resistance
The justices chose what is effectively the path of least resistance,
anticipating the federal government shutdown will end soon while avoiding any
substantive legal ruling about whether lower court orders to keep full payments
flowing during the shutdown are correct.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only one of the nine justices to say
she would have revived the lower court orders immediately, but didn't otherwise
explain her vote. Jackson signed the initial order temporarily freezing the
payments.
The court's action doesn't do anything to settle uncertainty across the
country.
Beneficiaries in some states have received their full monthly allocations
while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial
payments.
How quickly SNAP benefits could reach recipients if the government reopens
would vary by state. But states and advocates say that it's easier to make full
payments quickly than partial ones.
Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength,
also said there could be some technical challenges for states that have issued
partial benefits to send out the remaining amount.
An urgent need for beneficiaries
In Pennsylvania, full November benefits went out to some people on Friday.
But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had not received anything by Monday.
Malliard is a full-time caretaker for his wife, who is blind and has had
several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered severe
medical complications from surgery last year.
That stress has only been compounded by the pause in the $350 monthly SNAP
payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he
is down to $10 in his account and is relying on what's left in the pantry --
mostly rice and ramen.
"It's kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down
to the penny to make sure I was right," Malliard said. "To say anxiety has been
my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly."
The political wrangling in Washington has shocked many Americans, and some
have been moved to help.
"I figure that I've spent money on dumber stuff than trying to feed other
people during a manufactured famine," said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who set
out a "little food pantry" in her front yard this week for vulnerable neighbors
in Carthage, New York.
SNAP has been the center of an intense fight in court
The Trump administration chose to cut off SNAP funding after October due to
the shutdown. That decision sparked lawsuits and a string of swift and
contradictory judicial rulings that deal with government power --- and impact
food access for about 1 in 8 Americans.
The administration went along with two rulings on Oct. 31 by judges who said
the government must provide at least partial funding for SNAP. It eventually
said recipients would get up to 65% of their regular benefits. But it balked
last week when one of the judges said it must fund the program fully for
November, even if that means digging into funds the government said need to be
maintained in case of emergencies elsewhere.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to pause that order in a ruling late Sunday.
An appeals court said Monday that full funding should resume, and that
requirement was set to kick in Tuesday night before the top court extended the
order blocking full SNAP payments.
Congressional talks about reopening government
The U.S. Senate on Monday passed legislation to reopen the federal
government with a plan that would include replenishing SNAP funds. Speaker Mike
Johnson told members of the House to return to Washington to consider the deal
a small group of Senate Democrats made with Republicans.
President Donald Trump has not said whether he would sign it if it reaches
his desk, but told reporters at the White House on Sunday that it "looks like
we're getting close to the shutdown ending."
Still, the Trump administration said in a Supreme Court filing Monday that
it shouldn't be up to the courts.
"The answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to reallocate resources
without lawful authority," Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the papers.
"The only way to end this crisis -- which the Executive is adamant to end -- is
for Congress to reopen the government."
After Tuesday's ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media:
"Thank you to the Court for allowing Congress to continue its swift progress."
The coalition of cities and nonprofit groups who challenged the SNAP pause
said in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Agriculture, which
administers SNAP, is to blame for the confusion.
"The chaos was sown by USDA's delays and intransigence," they said, "not by
the district court's efforts to mitigate that chaos and the harm it has
inflicted on families who need food."
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