New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and a multistate coalition of 23 Attorneys General and 3 Governors obtained a court order from the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts finding that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) must use its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency funds to fund the program during the ongoing federal government shutdown. The Court also found that if the contingency fund cannot fully fund the program in November, then the federal government must consider other, additional funding sources. Until USDA follows the court’s ruling and takes further action, SNAP benefits will remain unavailable.
“From the beginning, we have said that the Trump Administration’s attempt to cut over 800,000 New Jerseyans from SNAP benefits that keep food on the table for them was blatantly illegal, and today the court agreed with us,” said Attorney General Platkin. “While this fight is not yet over, this is a critical development in our fight to prevent New Jersey families from being harmed by the Trump Administration’s political games. We intend to ensure that this order is complied with and that our residents are no longer at risk of their benefits being cut off.”
The order comes after Attorney General Platkin joined a coalition of 26 jurisdictions in suing the Trump Administration for suspending SNAP benefits in a manner that is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. Today’s order makes clear that USDA cannot refuse to use contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits. Should the contingency funds be insufficient to cover the cost of November’s SNAP benefits, the federal government must consider what other funding sources can be tapped. The federal government must tell the Court by Monday, November 3, whether it will utilize other funding sources beyond the SNAP contingency fund to ensure that 42 million Americans do not go hungry in November. Separately, a federal court in the District of Rhode Island similarly concluded in a separate case that USDA must use the contingency funds to issue SNAP benefits as soon as possible.
Attorney General Platkin also applauds Governor Murphy’s efforts to ensure that New Jerseyans have access to food by declaring a state of emergency due to the Federal Government’s suspension of SNAP benefits. While today’s court orders are an important step towards ensuring that New Jersey residents do not go hungry, the Federal Government’s refusal to fund SNAP thus far creates a substantial likelihood of gaps and/or delays in the availability of November SNAP benefits. Today’s Executive Order 402 provides a coordinated statewide response to the harms visited by imminent lapses in SNAP benefits and directs operational coordination by the Office of Emergency Management within the Division of State Police within the Department of Law and Public Safety.
Moreover, Attorney General Platkin will also serve on Governor Murphy’s interagency Task Force on the Federal Suspension of SNAP Benefits, established by Executive Order 401, also issued today. The Attorney General will work with the other members of the Task Force on New Jersey’s response to the food insecurity crisis caused by the USDA’s failure to fund SNAP benefits.
