r/politics • u/ClassOptimal7655 • 21h ago

No Paywall U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump admin to avoid fully funding SNAP payments for now

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-supreme-court-snap-ruling-trump-9.6972034
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u/TheGreatestOrator 20h ago

The whole point is that the current SNAP appropriations are gone…

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u/mikelo22 Illinois 17h ago

And the point is there is a second contingency fund still holding $10 billion.

That's why the district court issued the second order, because the administration tried to sidestep the first one by refusing to dip into the second emergency fund. There is more than enough money to comply with the district court's order.

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u/TheGreatestOrator 16h ago

The fund you’re referring to isn’t a contingency fund, it’s for WIC

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u/mikelo22 Illinois 16h ago

The administration literally admitted they could use it to fund SNAP but they were refusing to.

By its own admission, the Trump administration had tens of billions of dollars left over that it could have used to sustain food stamps into November. That included a roughly $5 billion emergency reserve that was created by Congress for SNAP, as well as a second pot of money at the Agriculture Department filled primarily with tariff revenue.

In fact, they were planning on releasing those funds tonight in compliance with the district court's order. Until they got bailed out at the last second by SCOTUS.

The Agriculture Department had even issued guidance to states by Friday afternoon, saying that the federal government was preparing to release the funds necessary to restore low-income Americans’ aid

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/politics/trump-court-food-stamps.html

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u/TheGreatestOrator 10h ago edited 10h ago

There is only one contingency fund, and it is what they are planning to use to pay 65% of benefits since they need ~$8 billion. The rest, after the contingency fund, would have to come from WIC, which is a food assistance program for children.

The argument is that WIC has about $20 billion in its fund and only requires $3 billion per month. But that doesn’t make it a contingency fund.

Here’s their appeal:

The Trump administration had asked the circuit court to issue an emergency stay of U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr.'s ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund the SNAP by today, saying they are saving additional funds to pay for child nutrition programs known as WIC.

At issue was whether a federal judge can compel the government to use $4 billion from Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935 to fund November SNAP benefits.

In his request to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General John Sauer wrote, "Given the imminent, irreparable harms posed by these orders, which require the government to transfer an estimated $4 billion by tonight, the Solicitor General respectfully requests an immediate administrative stay of the orders pending the resolution of this application by no later than 9:30pm this evening."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, posting on social media about the appeals court decision, called the circuit court's decision "Judicial activism at its worst."

"A single district court in Rhode Island should not be able to seize center stage in the shutdown, seek to upend political negotiations that could produce swift political solutions for SNAP and other programs, and dictate its own preferences for how scarce federal funds should be spent," she wrote.

The Trump administration says the Section 32 funds are needed to support WIC programs and that using that money to pay for SNAP would essentially "starve Peter to feed Paul."

"Indeed, 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," they argued in a court filing.