{"id":14809,"date":"2025-10-24T20:16:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-administration-wont-tap-emergency-funds-to-pay-food-aid\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T20:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:16:44","slug":"trump-administration-wont-tap-emergency-funds-to-pay-food-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-administration-wont-tap-emergency-funds-to-pay-food-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration won\u2019t tap emergency funds to pay food aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Trump administration won\u2019t tap emergency funds to pay for federal food benefits, imperiling benefits starting Nov. 1 for nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the nation\u2019s largest anti-hunger program, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USDA said in the memo that it won\u2019t tap a contingency fund or other nutrition programs to cover the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is set to run out of federal funds at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

The contingency fund for SNAP currently holds roughly $5 billion<\/a>, which would not cover the full $9 billion the administration would need to fund November benefits. Even if the administration did partially tap those funds, it would take weeks to dole out the money on a pro rata basis \u2014 meaning most low-income Americans would miss their November food benefits anyway.<\/p>\n

In order to make the deadline, the Trump administration would have needed to start preparing for partial payments weeks ago, which it has not done.<\/p>\n

Congressional Democrats and anti-hunger groups have urged the Trump administration to keep SNAP benefits flowing into November, some even arguing that the federal government is legally required<\/a> to tap other funds to pay for the program. But senior officials have told Blue Light News that using those other funds wouldn\u2019t leave money for future emergencies and other major food aid programs.<\/p>\n

Administration officials expect Democratic governors and anti-hunger groups to sue over the decision not to tap the contingency fund for SNAP, according to two people granted anonymity to describe private views. The White House is blaming Democrats for the lapse in funding due to their repeated votes against a House-passed stopgap funding bill.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration stepped in to shore up funding for key farm programs this week after also identifying Pentagon funds to pay active-duty troops earlier in the month.<\/p>\n

USDA said in the memo, which was first reported by Axios, that it cannot tap the contingency fund because it is reserved for emergencies such as natural disasters. The department also argues that using money from other nutrition programs would hurt other beneficiaries, such as mothers and babies as well as schoolchildren who are eligible for free lunches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Administration will not allow Democrats to jeopardize funding for school meals and infant formula in order to prolong their shutdown,\u201d USDA wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n

Congress could pass a standalone bill<\/a> to fund SNAP for November, but that would have to get through the Senate early next week and the House would likely need to return to approve it. Johnson said this week if the Senate passes a standalone SNAP patch, the House would \u201caddress\u201d it.<\/p>\n

Some states, including Virginia and Hawaii, have started to tap their own emergency funds to offer some food benefits in the absence of SNAP. But it\u2019s not clear how long that aid can last given states\u2019 limited budgets and typical reliance on federal help to pay for anti-hunger programs. USDA, furthermore, said states cannot expect to be reimbursed if they cover the cost of keeping benefits flowing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration won\u2019t tap emergency funds to pay for federal food benefits, imperiling benefits starting Nov. 1 for nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the nation\u2019s largest anti-hunger program, according to a memo obtained by Blue Light News. USDA said in the memo that it won\u2019t tap a contingency fund or other nutrition programs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}