Produce at a grocery store in Virginia in 2011. (Photo by Lance Cheung/U.S. Department of Agriculture)
WASHINGTON – The US Department of Agriculture announced a memo On Friday, the agency’s emergency fund cannot be legally used to provide food aid to more than 42 million people in November as the government shutdown drags on.
The position is a reversal of the department’s previous stance, they say a now deleted copy of the USDA shutdown plan dated Sept. 30, which said the department would operate its multi-year emergency fund to continue paying Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the ongoing shutdown.
SNAP has about $6 billion in its emergency fund — less than the roughly $9 billion needed to cover a full month of the program, putting November benefits at risk.
Because of a stalemate In Congress over a stopgap bill, the government shut down on October 1 without passing fresh SNAP funding.
The memo that came first reported by Axios On Friday, it said states would not receive reimbursement if they used their own funds to cover the cost of the benefits.
“Under current law, there is no provision or allowance for states to cover the cost of services and receive reimbursement,” the memo said. At the same time, however, it notes that “the best way for SNAP to continue is to end the shutdown.”
Discrepancy with the shutdown plan
The memo also states that the emergency fund is intended for natural disasters and similar emergencies and not for lack of funds.
But USDA’s Sept. 30 contingency plan contradicts that and appears to give the green airy to using SNAP’s emergency fund during a funding outage.
“It is clear that Congress intends to continue operations of SNAP, as the program is provided with multi-year emergency funds that can be used for state administrative expenses to ensure that the state can continue operations even during a government shutdown,” the plan states. “These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participants’ benefits in the event of an outage midway through the fiscal year.”
The USDA emergency plan is no longer online but is accessible via an internet archive.
After submitting the memo to the States Newsroom on Friday afternoon, the USDA did not immediately respond to a follow-up request regarding the discrepancy between Friday’s memo and its emergency response plan.
In the memo, the USDA said that transferring money from other sources to SNAP would “draw funding away from school meals and infant formula.”
The agency said this was the case mixed funds for coverage several nutrition programs during the shutdown, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), as well as the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Democrats are calling on Rollins to tap the fund
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week that the government would run out of funds for November delivery SNAP benefits as a result of the ongoing shutdown.
On Friday morning, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, like nearly all of their counterparts in the Senate and the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, called on Rollins not only to operate the emergency fund but also to reprogram other money to cover a $3 billion deficit.
“A potential loss of benefits would be felt by Americans of all ages and would affect every corner and congressional district of the country,” more than said in the letter 200 Democrats in the House of Representatives.
In a separate letter, 46 Senate Democrats wrote sent On Wednesday, he addressed Rollins and raised concerns that the USDA had told states to hold off on submitting SNAP benefits for processing in November.
“We were deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has directed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November, and we were surprised by your recent comments that the program ‘will run out of money in two weeks,'” the letter said. “In fact, USDA has several tools that would allow SNAP benefits to be paid out by or near the end of November.”
Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins of Maine, Republican, also called on Rollins to do so Thursday letter “to explore all available options consistent with federal law to ensure that this vital food assistance continues, including the use of emergency funds and examining the feasibility of partial payments or any transfer authority.”
Even if an agreement is reached, the benefits could be snail-paced
States have been ordered by the agency to hold off on submitting SNAP benefit applications to processing centers. food banks and pantries are already preparing for increased demand, including in Iowawhere more than 270,000 Iowans rely on SNAP each month.
However, even if Congress reached an agreement immediately to end the shutdown, the time it would take to process the payments and make them available to recipients would mean that SNAP benefits would likely be delayed. State officials have warned SNAP recipients of possible delays.
In West Virginia, Officials said delays are expected and urged residents to seek support at local food distribution sites. Approximately one in six West Virginians relies on SNAP each month.
Statutory requirement cited
Sharon Parrott, a White House Office of Management and Budget official during the Obama administration who now runs a left-leaning think tank, said in a statement Thursday that the USDA is required by law to operate its SNAP emergency funds.
Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the multi-year emergency fund is “billions of dollars that Congress has set aside in the event that SNAP funding falls short and will remain available during the shutdown – to fund November benefits for one in eight Americans who need SNAP to pay their grocery bill.”
Parrott said the Trump administration could operate its statutory transfer authority, just as it did with WIC funding, to “augment contingency reserves that alone are insufficient to fund families’ full benefits.”
