'Unequivocally false': Expert debunks Trump admin's argument against food stamp funding

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President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting, Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in the Cabinet Room. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says contingency funds cannot be used to pay SNAP benefits to about 42 million people, despite its own prior guidance that points to “Congressional intent.” The USDA also says that states that choose to cover those costs will not be reimbursed when the shutdown is lifted.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program “has contingency funds that could cover about two-thirds of the shortfall, which Democrats and liberal-leaning groups are calling on the administration to tap,” Axios reported. “But the USDA issued a one-page memo Friday saying the fund is only for true emergencies ‘like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, that can come on quickly and without notice.'”

Axios also called Friday’s guidance “the latest salvo in a string of memos and legal opinions designed to pressure Democrats into approving a ‘clean CR,’ or continuing resolution, to fund the government.”

Additionally, Axios reported, a Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis Thursday “argued Trump has a legal obligation to continue funding SNAP, and accused him of cruelty.”

“The Trump administration has spent the entire year endangering the food security of millions of Americans,” CAP’s analysis stated. “From terminating funding used to purchase food for schools and food banks to passing the largest cuts in SNAP history, the administration has made it clear that its goal is to take food away from hungry families—and that sentiment is extending to the USDA’s approach to the shutdown.”

But according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a now-deleted USDA shutdown “Lapse of Funding” memo states that the General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “provided a letter to USDA” that states “there is a bona fide need to obligate benefits for October – the first month of the fiscal year – during or prior to the month of September,” which would guarantee that funds be available for SNAP benefits.

“In addition,” the memo stated, “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown.”

CBPP President Sharon Parrott, a former OMB official, said in a statement on Thursday that Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ “claim that the Trump Administration is unable to deliver November SNAP benefits during a shutdown is unequivocally false.”

“In fact,” Parrott said, “the Administration is legally required to use contingency reserves — billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate that remain available during the shutdown — to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill.”

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