(NewsNation) — Roughly 42 million Americans are waiting for a ruling in an eleventh-hour lawsuit to free up Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program funding as the government shutdown nears a month.
The USDA announced it would freeze funding for SNAP food aid starting Nov. 1, claiming “the well has run out.”
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, the federal judge overseeing the case, was originally expected to issue a ruling Thursday. No formal ruling has come down, but Talwani on Thursday seemed skeptical the government could cut off the funding Saturday.
“If you don’t have money, you tighten your belt,” she said. “You are not going to make everyone drop dead because it’s a political game someplace.”
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The ruling will determine whether the government dips into emergency funds. The last-minute hearing Thursday was over a lawsuit brought forth by 25 states and Washington, D.C., regarding the funding freeze, which is set to impact 1 in 8 Americans.
Lawmakers have battled over a roughly $5 billion contingency fund — money Republicans and the Trump administration argue they can’t legally touch.
“When it comes to SNAP, some of the Democrats have argued that you can use this contingency fund. But the truth is, there’s no legal mechanism to do it,” said House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson.
Lawyers for the federal government argued dispersing the contingency money violates the law and that partial payments are too complicated.
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House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries countered that there are ways to access the funds, and that Republicans are withholding “so they can pressure Democrats into gutting the health care of the American people.”
The Democrat-led states that filed the lawsuit argued the government has a legal obligation to keep the program alive for millions of families living at or below the poverty line.
Some states have stepped up to at least keep their own version of the program running for now, with New York and Hawaii offering their own emergency money to help families who qualify for SNAP benefits.
