Legal Battle over SNAP Continues After USDA Orders States to Take Back Benefits 

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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The legal battle over the country’s largest federal food assistance program continues, even as folks in Santa Barbara County received the November funding they rely on to help buy groceries late last week and the government shutdown appears like it may be nearing its end. On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with attorneys general from several other states, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after the federal organization sent a memo on Saturday telling states to stop distributing SNAP benefits and take back the ones they had already released. 

“In short, they directed states to claw back food assistance that’s already gone to hungry Americans who’ve been waiting for it, counting on it to feed themselves and their loved ones,” Attorney General Bonta said in a press conference on Monday. 

Santa Barbara County received the benefit money between Thursday night and Friday morning and distributed all November benefits to SNAP recipients after federal Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island ordered the USDA to pay the full benefits. It was welcome news for the county’s 55,000 recipients who rely on the program to eat. For the week prior, the USDA withheld funding for the federal program due to the government shutdown. 

After earlier rulings from Judge McConnell Jr. and Judge Indira Talwani, a federal judge from Massachusetts, the Trump administration had announced it would distribute partial benefits. But there was no clear directive on the distribution of these benefits by Thursday. Judge McConnell Jr. said the government knew there would be a long delay in paying out partial benefits and did not consider the harm that delay would cause. 

Come Saturday, the legal landscape had changed again. The Trump administration had appealed McConnell’s decision to the Supreme Court, where Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the administration a temporary reprieve from the order, which returned the matter back to the first circuit court of appeals to rule on. On Saturday evening, the USDA sent a memo ordering states to take back that money. 

It is this memo that California Attorney General Bonta, along with 22 other attorneys general and three state governors, have challenged in court. 

“[The] USDA doesn’t have the right to force us to undo actions we took based on its own direction and a court order,” Bonta said. 

At home in Santa Barbara, the county’s department of Social Services said that November’s benefits have gone out as planned, but they aren’t sure whether people who sign up for SNAP this month will receive benefits. 

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Talwani blocked the USDA from enforcing the second memo and taking back benefits.   

As part of the November 10 virtual press conference, the attending attorneys general said the Trump administration was deliberately withholding the benefits to pressure the end of the government shutdown.

“The Trump administration’s position was, ‘We are going to starve hungry Americans until you allow us to rip away affordable health care from other Americans, and that is not a choice,’” Bonta said. 

“It should shock the conscience of everyone in our country that the federal government would willfully and, indeed, aggressively fight to keep food off of our tables, food away from children, babies, veterans, senior citizens, [and] the disabled,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The USDA has argued that to fund SNAP, which costs the federal government more than $8 billion a month, it would need to pull money from sources that fund school meals and infant formula. James said that this assertion is untrue, and that the USDA has the contingency funds to continue to fund the program. 

Known as CalFresh in California, SNAP pencils out to about $6.20 a day per person in the state and helps people afford groceries. Nearly 40 percent of the program’s recipients in Santa Barbara County are children. Many young adults, seniors, and disabled people also rely on SNAP to eat. 

The attorneys general answered questions about how an end to the government shutdown would impact the lawsuit. On November 10, the Senate reached a deal to end the shutdown. That now has to be voted on by the House and signed by President Trump. 

Santa Barbara County’s House Representative Salud Carbajal said he would not support legislation that raises the cost of healthcare for Central Coast families in a comment to the Independent. 

“For weeks, we have called on Republican leadership to work across the aisle on a funding bill that protects working families’ healthcare. Now, Senate Republicans are advancing a bill that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which will force thousands across the Central Coast to pay more for health insurance and force many others to go without coverage,” he said. 

Bonta said that he was disappointed by the Senate’s proposal to pass the budget in exchange for a vote to extend healthcare subsidies (the vote does not guarantee these subsidies are extended). He said that he intends to see the lawsuit through until the end. 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison brought up the legal principle of the fight — can the Trump administration withhold programs approved by Congress as part of political bargaining? 

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin said that the Trump administration’s decision to withhold SNAP benefits has caused mass confusion, and it attempts to undermine the confidence people have in the support system in the first place.