Current Events > Trump Won't Use Emergency Funds for Food Stamps During Shutdown

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The decision, described in an Agriculture Department memo, appeared to contradict earlier guidance from the agency that said it could tap into leftover emergency funds. The move raised the risk of some of the nations poorest families being unable to buy food in a matter of days.
Dozens of states have warned that they cannot provide benefits next month, and at least two have already paused delivering them, prompting a surge of demand at food banks and eliciting anxiety among recipients.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides one in eight people in the United States with money to buy food. Those benefits, often referred to as food stamps, average about $187 per month and cost the federal government $8 billion monthly. The shutdown has put funding for the program at risk. But SNAP maintains a reserve, currently estimated to be about $5 billion, that can help cover emergencies and shortfalls.
In recent days, Democrats and Republicans urged the Agriculture Department to use this money as the fiscal stalemate entered its fourth week.
But on Friday, the agency said that such contingency funding was not legally available to address the shutdown, and that it was only supposed to provide food assistance in disasters and emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.

In describing its shutdown plans, the department had previously said that the contingency funds were available to fund participant benefits.
The White House and the Agriculture Department did not respond to questions about the change in policy. The decision came after the Trump administration reprogrammed billions of taxpayer dollars to pay workers and sustain programs central to the presidents political agenda.
The administrations argument that it was unable to use SNAPs contingency funding for November benefits prompted skepticism from legal experts.
If theres not enough money, you can use it, said Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at the liberal Center for American Progress and a former White House budget official. That is the point of the contingency fund.
Because SNAP is an entitlement program, Mr. Kogan added, it is considered mandatory spending, meaning the department must use the pot of money.
David A. Super, a law professor at Georgetown University and a federal budget expert, called the memos rationale absurd, and said nothing in the law imposes that limit of using contingency funding only for natural disasters.
Both the first Trump administration and this administration as recently as the end of September said these funds were available in the case of lapses in appropriations, he said. This is blatantly lawless.

Both the first Trump administration and this administration as recently as the end of September said these funds were available in the case of lapses in appropriations, he said. This is blatantly lawless.

Both the first Trump administration and this administration as recently as the end of September said these funds were available in the case of lapses in appropriations, he said. This is blatantly lawless.

cost the federal government $8 billion monthly. The shutdown has put funding for the program at risk. But SNAP maintains a reserve, currently estimated to be about $5 billion, that can help cover emergencies and shortfalls.

You're going to have food riots across the country next month if action isn't taken now.

You're going to have food riots across the country next month if action isn't taken now.

He wants an excuse to send in the army, and subjugate you all.

Hes getting rid of the armys cheap food by selling off the commissaries. So soon theyll be scrounging for food too.

You're going to have food riots across the country next month if action isn't taken now.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/04a300a8.jpg

Yea, I'm screwed.

Exactly what level of "outsider" without the label of career politician did Republicans even like about this guy in the first place?

This is all going as the oligarchs planned.

They want a sector of the United States wiped from existence. The poor, the homeless, the unemployed. Anyone who doesn't contribute enough to their growing wealth can starve and die with no healthcare. I don't believe Trump is smart enough to figure anything out on his own and is mostly following the orders of his billionaire donors.

No abortions = a larger future workforce to replace the brown immigrants. AI and robotics = less jobs, driving Americans to take manual labor jobs they wouldn't normally consider.

Our only hope is a strong non-Republican administration who isn't there to get their pockets lined and will have these current fuckers tried and thrown in prison.

They can want it all they want. It just won't end well for them. They have their fantasies, but a plan like this will just end with the richer, blue states leaving and leaving the poorer states to fend for themselves. And that would be difficult because the blue states also have a stranglehold on ports

Bread and circus minus bread.

It's okay guys, ICE has all the money they need. True priorities.

I'm not too familiar with how SNAP works but wouldn't this be a pretty huge blow to Trump's struggling economy?

Also remember Republicans cut $150 billion in SNAP funding with that Big Shitty Bill.

you're all screwed.