WASHINGTON, D.C. (WCAX) – The Trump administration has to continue funding food stamps during the government shutdown. The ruling from two New England federal judges, on Friday afternoon, comes just hours before the SNAP payments were due to be halted.
One in eight Americans, and about 65,000 Vermonters, use food stamps to buy their groceries. That is why 25 states, including Vermont and New York, sued the Trump administration, saying it had a legal obligation to use contingency funds to keep those benefits going.
The Trump administration said it could not use the $5 billion for the SNAP program. The potential loss of funding prompted the state to step in this week and approve six-point-three million in taxpayer dollars to keep Three Squares Vermont benefits going for the first half of November.
On Friday, the Scott administration tells us they are still working to understand what these rulings mean for Vermont. However, they say there is language in the measure passed on Wednesday that says if the government shutdown ends, or benefits resume before the state’s money goes out, then Vermont will not issue the temporary benefits, or the $250,000 Foodbank grant.
Republican leaders in Vermont, like GOP Chair Paul Dame, blame Democrats for the month-long shutdown on Capitol Hill. He says while it was a good move for Vermont to fund the program in the short term, it is not a sustainable solution.
“It really does put a lot of pressure on the state, because we do not know if two weeks is going to be long enough… I think for an initial step to make sure that there is continuity, I think that is going to be fine. But we have got to be careful about the path that we are going down here. The State of Vermont cannot afford to fund this program, in its current state, for very long,” said Dame.
Those rulings regarding federal funding for SNAP are likely to face appeals. The judge gave the Trump administration a Monday deadline to come up with a plan. So it is still unclear exactly when the federal money could flow again to people’s EBT cards, or if the state funding will be needed to fill the void.
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