Federal food assistance payments in Michigan and across the country are in limbo once again, after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked full benefits while a judge reviews the Trump administration’s request to pay only partial food assistance during the government shutdown.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said that the ruling forced the department to pause benefits.
“November benefits that have not yet been issued will remain paused until the courts or USDA take further action to allow MDHHS to resume payment,” the release said.
“We are disappointed by the federal government’s continued efforts to prevent SNAP benefits from reaching the Michigan residents who rely on them,” said MDHHS director Elizabeth Hertel, in the release. “Taking this matter all the way to the Supreme Court creates uncertainty, confusion, and frustration. Worse than that, it punishes the more than 1 million Michigan residents who qualify for and rely on their benefits to put food on the table.”
What did courts say about SNAP benefits?
The Supreme Court weighed in late Friday night, after a day of developments.
The day started with with the President Donald Trump administration appealing a court order to fully fund SNAP benefits. U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, on Thursday ordered the payout by Friday, accusing the administration of withholding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits for political reasons with the government shutdown now more than a month old.
The U.S. Department of Justice in a filing Friday with the U.S First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said McConnell had no authority to order the payments, saying judges have no power to appropriate or spend federal money.
Read more:
- Supreme Court: Trump administration doesn’t have to promptly pay full food benefits for now
- Judge orders Trump administration to fully fund SNAP; Trump appeals
- What’s going on with SNAP benefits in Michigan? Here’s what we know.
- Double Up Food Bucks food assistance program makes changes as SNAP pauses in November
- Michigan families, food banks brace for looming SNAP pause
“There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions,” the department said. “This is a crisis, to be sure, but it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action.”
The administration argued that McConnell’s order to fully fund the program would force the USDA to transfer money from child nutrition programs that fund meals in schools.
“It cannot possibly be arbitrary and capricious for USDA to decline to raid school-lunch money to instead fund SNAP benefits — to starve Peter to feed Paul, as it were.”
By the evening, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals denied the administration’s request for an immediate administrative stay, pending a final decision. The Department to Justice appealed to the U.S. Spreme Court, which granted the immediate stay.
The order means the USDA does not have to pay full benefits to SNAP recipients, as the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals considers the case, and during the government shutdown.
Will full or partial benefits be paid?
The Supreme Court’s ruling allows for partial food assistance of SNAP benefits, but in a court filing Friday, states filed briefs saying it is a time consuming process to recalibrate payments.
Several states, including Michigan, argued the partial payment plan was deeply flawed, in a brief opposing the Trump administration’s appeal.
“Numerous states have determined that implementing USDA’s partial benefits plan will take weeks or even months, leaving their residents to go hungry in the interim, or attempt to get by with already-stretched state resources,” the brief read. “This is because implementation of USDA’s partial payment scheme requires states to undertake cumbersome administrative procedures that they have never before had to implement on a systemwide scale.”