Boston judge to hear bid to keep SNAP funding through shutdown

A federal judge in Boston will hear a motion Thursday seeking to force the administration to continue funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program despite a partial government shutdown, two days before the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to stop SNAP payments. The hearing before U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani comes after officials notified states that the agency could not sustain benefit disbursements because of the shutdown, setting a potential Nov. 1 cutoff that has prompted urgent legal and logistical responses.

Attorneys general or governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia filed the motion, arguing the administration has a legal duty to keep SNAP operating and that funds are available to do so. Plaintiffs say a contingency account of roughly $5 billion and a separate fund of about $23 billion could be tapped to cover the program, which costs about $8 billion per month and serves roughly one in eight Americans. In their court filing, the plaintiffs wrote, "With the suspension of SNAP benefits, the nutritional needs of millions of school aged children in Plaintiff States will not be met."

The administration, according to court papers, reversed an...