Tayami Vega, Maria Ruiz, and Charles Pierre receive groceries from the Curley's House Food Bank days before the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits may expire due to the Federal government shutdown on October 30, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Republicans to Illegally Starve the Poor to Force Dems to Cut Health Insurance
Not only is this cruel. It's also illegal.
The Trump administration has announced that it will not allow approximately $6 billion contingency funding still left in SNAP (commonly known as food stamps) to be used to feed the one in eight Americans who rely on it. It claims that the only way these people will receive food after November 1 is if Democrats give up their fight to protect the Affordable Care Act and fund the Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" with no changes.
Not only is this cruel. It's also illegal.
There are approximately $6 billion sitting in a contingency account to fund SNAP in an emergency. According to the law, appropriating these funds, "For necessary expenses ...[these funds] shall be placed in reserve to use only in such amounts and at such times a may become necessary to carry out program operations." It couldn't be clearer in the law that release of these funds is now "necessary to carry out program operations." Spending this contingency on SNAP in November is not only clearly legal, it's arguably mandatory.
Until a few days ago, even the Trump administration agreed that these funds should be used to continue SNAP funding during the shutdown. In a 55-page "Lapse of Funding" plan posted by Trump's Department of Agriculture on September 30, 2025, during a lapse, "[T]he Department will continue operations related to... core nutrition safety net programs."
A few days ago, this plan disappeared entirely from the department's website. In its place, the Agriculture Department issued a new 2-page memo asserting the "Due to Congressional Democrats' refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive SNAP benefits come November 1st." The new memo cited absolutely no law supporting its position. Instead, it made up a rule claiming that the "contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exist." So what! The contingency funds exist. They were funded by Congress and are sitting there waiting to pay for SNAP benefits now.
As constitutional law professor David Super wrote, "Terminating SNAP is a choice, and an overtly unlawful one at that. The Administration has chosen to hold food for more than forty million vulnerable people hostage to try to force Democrats to capitulate without negotiations."
Democrats need to call out this cruel and illegal Republican attempt to starve the poor to force cuts to health insurance under which 30 million Americans are likely to become uninsured and millions more will see their premiums double or triple.
Meanwhile, 25 State Attorney Generals sued the Trump regime in Federal Court this week, demanding the administration be forced to expend the contingency SNAP funds. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts just heard oral arguments in the suit and, according to the New York Times, seemed skeptical of the administration's arguments.
During oral arguments, the judge stated that "Congress has put money in an emergency fund. It's hard for me to understand how this isn't an emergency, when there's not money, and a lot of people are needing SNAP benefits." She promised to rule quickly. But if she orders the regime to pay the SNAP benefits for November, the regime will probably make an emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court and if SCOTUS follows its recent pattern, it could put such an order on hold until SCOTUS hears the case months down the line, making sure its too late to pay the SNAP benefits in time.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
The Trump administration has announced that it will not allow approximately $6 billion contingency funding still left in SNAP (commonly known as food stamps) to be used to feed the one in eight Americans who rely on it. It claims that the only way these people will receive food after November 1 is if Democrats give up their fight to protect the Affordable Care Act and fund the Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" with no changes.
Not only is this cruel. It's also illegal.
There are approximately $6 billion sitting in a contingency account to fund SNAP in an emergency. According to the law, appropriating these funds, "For necessary expenses ...[these funds] shall be placed in reserve to use only in such amounts and at such times a may become necessary to carry out program operations." It couldn't be clearer in the law that release of these funds is now "necessary to carry out program operations." Spending this contingency on SNAP in November is not only clearly legal, it's arguably mandatory.
Until a few days ago, even the Trump administration agreed that these funds should be used to continue SNAP funding during the shutdown. In a 55-page "Lapse of Funding" plan posted by Trump's Department of Agriculture on September 30, 2025, during a lapse, "[T]he Department will continue operations related to... core nutrition safety net programs."
A few days ago, this plan disappeared entirely from the department's website. In its place, the Agriculture Department issued a new 2-page memo asserting the "Due to Congressional Democrats' refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive SNAP benefits come November 1st." The new memo cited absolutely no law supporting its position. Instead, it made up a rule claiming that the "contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exist." So what! The contingency funds exist. They were funded by Congress and are sitting there waiting to pay for SNAP benefits now.
As constitutional law professor David Super wrote, "Terminating SNAP is a choice, and an overtly unlawful one at that. The Administration has chosen to hold food for more than forty million vulnerable people hostage to try to force Democrats to capitulate without negotiations."
Democrats need to call out this cruel and illegal Republican attempt to starve the poor to force cuts to health insurance under which 30 million Americans are likely to become uninsured and millions more will see their premiums double or triple.
Meanwhile, 25 State Attorney Generals sued the Trump regime in Federal Court this week, demanding the administration be forced to expend the contingency SNAP funds. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts just heard oral arguments in the suit and, according to the New York Times, seemed skeptical of the administration's arguments.
During oral arguments, the judge stated that "Congress has put money in an emergency fund. It's hard for me to understand how this isn't an emergency, when there's not money, and a lot of people are needing SNAP benefits." She promised to rule quickly. But if she orders the regime to pay the SNAP benefits for November, the regime will probably make an emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court and if SCOTUS follows its recent pattern, it could put such an order on hold until SCOTUS hears the case months down the line, making sure its too late to pay the SNAP benefits in time.
The Trump administration has announced that it will not allow approximately $6 billion contingency funding still left in SNAP (commonly known as food stamps) to be used to feed the one in eight Americans who rely on it. It claims that the only way these people will receive food after November 1 is if Democrats give up their fight to protect the Affordable Care Act and fund the Republicans' "Big Ugly Bill" with no changes.
Not only is this cruel. It's also illegal.
There are approximately $6 billion sitting in a contingency account to fund SNAP in an emergency. According to the law, appropriating these funds, "For necessary expenses ...[these funds] shall be placed in reserve to use only in such amounts and at such times a may become necessary to carry out program operations." It couldn't be clearer in the law that release of these funds is now "necessary to carry out program operations." Spending this contingency on SNAP in November is not only clearly legal, it's arguably mandatory.
Until a few days ago, even the Trump administration agreed that these funds should be used to continue SNAP funding during the shutdown. In a 55-page "Lapse of Funding" plan posted by Trump's Department of Agriculture on September 30, 2025, during a lapse, "[T]he Department will continue operations related to... core nutrition safety net programs."
A few days ago, this plan disappeared entirely from the department's website. In its place, the Agriculture Department issued a new 2-page memo asserting the "Due to Congressional Democrats' refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive SNAP benefits come November 1st." The new memo cited absolutely no law supporting its position. Instead, it made up a rule claiming that the "contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exist." So what! The contingency funds exist. They were funded by Congress and are sitting there waiting to pay for SNAP benefits now.
As constitutional law professor David Super wrote, "Terminating SNAP is a choice, and an overtly unlawful one at that. The Administration has chosen to hold food for more than forty million vulnerable people hostage to try to force Democrats to capitulate without negotiations."
Democrats need to call out this cruel and illegal Republican attempt to starve the poor to force cuts to health insurance under which 30 million Americans are likely to become uninsured and millions more will see their premiums double or triple.
Meanwhile, 25 State Attorney Generals sued the Trump regime in Federal Court this week, demanding the administration be forced to expend the contingency SNAP funds. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts just heard oral arguments in the suit and, according to the New York Times, seemed skeptical of the administration's arguments.
During oral arguments, the judge stated that "Congress has put money in an emergency fund. It's hard for me to understand how this isn't an emergency, when there's not money, and a lot of people are needing SNAP benefits." She promised to rule quickly. But if she orders the regime to pay the SNAP benefits for November, the regime will probably make an emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court and if SCOTUS follows its recent pattern, it could put such an order on hold until SCOTUS hears the case months down the line, making sure its too late to pay the SNAP benefits in time.