Top House Democrats tore into the Trump administration on Friday night for withholding available food aid for millions of low-income Americans, saying the decision is both callous and illegal.
“It is a disgusting dereliction of duty that the Trump administration would knowingly rip food out of the mouths of 42 million children, seniors and veterans,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is sitting on more than $5 billion in a contingency fund earmarked by Congress to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in emergencies. But the department says it won’t use those funds to cover benefits if the government shutdown extends beyond Oct. 31, according to multiple news reports.
In a memo, first reported by Axios, the USDA said the reason is simple: The contingency fund was designed to respond to emergencies, like natural disasters, and the current shutdown doesn’t qualify because it was manufactured by Democrats. To spend the money on SNAP benefits during such an event, the USDA said, would be illegal.
“[T]he contingency fund is a source of funds for contingencies, such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides food purchasing benefits for individuals in disaster areas, including natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, that can come on quickly and without notice,” the memo reads.
The memo contradicts the shutdown plan posted by USDA earlier in the year, which stated that “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operation should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown.”
The plan has since been deleted.
The new policy also stipulates that the USDA will not reimburse states that seek to fill the void with their own funding for food aid during the shutdown.
“There is no provision or allowance under current law for States to cover the cost of benefits and be reimbursed,” the memo says.
The reimbursement policy is not controversial. Democrats say any state funding directed to direct benefits would be supplemental to SNAP but not considered formal benefits.
The refusal to tap the contingency fund to pay benefits, however, is another story. And SNAP supporters — advocate groups and Democrats, alike — have argued for weeks that any effort by the administration to withhold contingency funds would be illegal.
Those accusations only escalated Friday night after the news of the USDA memo surfaced.
In a joint statement, Reps. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, and Angie Craig (Minn.), the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee, said the policy is not only a violation of the law, but a “cruel” attack on poor Americans.
“This is perhaps the most cruel and unlawful offense the Trump administration has perpetrated yet — freezing funding already enacted into law to feed hungry Americans while he shovels tens of billions of dollars out the door to Argentina and into his ballroom,” the pair said in a statement.
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