From NPR News,
SNAP benefits will restart, but will be half the normal payment and delayed.
This result is that massive victory Democrats were crowing about all weekend. A federal district judge or two ordered the Administration to use up contingency funds to make the partial November payment,
The $5 billion in that fund falls well short of the full cost of SNAP benefits — $8 billion — each month. In a court filing, officials said depleting that fund means “no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely.”
Good luck for December. Critics are not happy,
“It shouldn’t take a court order to force our President to provide essential nutrition that Congress has made clear needs to be provided,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement.
Congress (Senate Democrats) also shut down the government, so there’s that. That’s not all,
The government said Monday that state agencies will have to recode their eligibility systems to adjust for the reduced benefits, and it is unclear how quickly state systems will be able to do so. It warned that in some states, these system changes “will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.”
Months. Democrats got exactly what they wanted in filing these lawsuits, and the result is next to nothing. They predicted that 42 million would starve if the food stamps didn’t go out on schedule.
Now what?
Or, hear me out, Senate Democrats could just reopen the government, and we could get on with our lives as before.
Decisions, decistions.
