Billions of dollars in government payments have been frozen due to the government shutdown, and no food stamps for November have been distributed.
People have been out for too long, federal judge John McConnell said in Rhode Island District Court, according to media reports, when the decision was published late Thursday.
This should never happen in the United States.
According to the judge's decision, the Department of Agriculture must resume payments to the states on Friday.
But the government claims that there are only funds to cover just under two-thirds of the costs, and that it is not legally entitled to use funds intended for, among other things, school meals.
“The court should allow the Department of Agriculture to continue with partial payments and not force (the department) to transfer billions of dollars from other programs intended as collateral elsewhere,” the government writes.
The battle is over Snap, the federal program that provides food stamps to the needy in the United States – a total of about twelve percent of the population. Funding for the program expired on November 1. This is because Democrats and Republicans in Congress were unable to agree on a new government budget, resulting in a government shutdown.
The shutdown began on October 1 and is the longest in US history.
Facts: Snap
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Snap (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), a program within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is responsible for distributing assistance in the form of food stamps.
Over 42 million people in 22 million households received food stamps each month during the last budget period, which extended through September of this year.
This means that a little more than 12 percent of all 342 million citizens in the United States receive the support.
In 2023, children accounted for 39 percent of those eligible for support.
On average, each grant recipient receives support equivalent to $190 per month, equivalent to 1,800 SEK.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), USA Today
