President Donald Trump’s administration will partially foot the bill for the food assistance program SNAP as the government shutdown rages on.
Key government programs like SNAP officially lapsed over the weekend after Democrats voted over a dozen times throughout October against reopening the government. As the shutdown inches toward a record-breaking length, the Trump administration has agreed to partially fund SNAP benefits.
‘There’s a new sheriff in town.’
Two federal judges ruled on Friday that the Trump administration needs to spend a $5.25 billion emergency fund before officially cutting off SNAP. This will only cover about half of the $9 billion spent per month on SNAP benefits.
The judges also said the Department of Agriculture could move around its funds to supplement SNAP for the month of November, but the Trump administration will likely refrain, calling it an “unacceptable risk.”
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“Section 32 Child Nutrition Program funds are not a contingency fund for SNAP,” Patrick Penn, who oversees the SNAP program at the USDA, wrote Monday.
“Using billions of dollars from Child Nutrition for SNAP would leave an unprecedented gap in Child Nutrition funding that Congress has never had to fill with annual appropriations, and USDA cannot predict what Congress will do under these circumstances,” Penn added.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is also seizing the opportunity to comb through SNAP recipients to ensure that only Americans and not illegal aliens are receiving the taxpayer-funded benefits.
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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“On my first day [at USDA,] we told every state to send us their SNAP data so we could make sure illegal immigrants aren’t getting benefits meant for American families,” Rollins said. “29 states stepped up. 21 blue states refused — and two SUED US FOR ASKING! And guess what? In just the states that cooperated, we’ve already uncovered massive fraud.”
“The Democrat Party has turned its back on working Americans and built its entire strategy around protecting illegal aliens,” Rollins added. “They know if the handouts stop, those illegals will go back home, and Democrats will lose 20+ seats after the next census. There’s a new sheriff in town. [President Trump] will not tolerate waste, fraud, or abuse while hardworking Americans go hungry.”
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