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Partial SNAP payments unprecedented in program's 60-year

history

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States may face delays in distributing reduced benefits

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Democratic-led states and officials push for full SNAP

funding

By Nate Raymond and Leah Douglas

Nov 3 (Reuters) -

President Donald Trump's administration said on Monday it

plans to partially fund November food benefits for millions of

Americans, but warned it could take some states weeks or months

to calculate and distribute the aid.

The administration laid out the Department of Agriculture's

plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island after a judge

ordered it on Friday to use emergency funds to at least

partially cover November's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

Program or SNAP benefits.

But a USDA official warned in the filing that at least some

states, which administer SNAP benefits, would need weeks to

months to make system changes that would allow them to calculate

and issue the reduced benefits.

Partial payments are unprecedented in the program's 60-year

history, which provides assistance to nearly 42 million

low-income Americans.

Changes in the system that states need to implement to

provide reduced benefits "will take anywhere from a few weeks to

up to several months," said the filing from Patrick Penn, deputy

under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at

the USDA.

SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, lapsed for the

first time ever on November 1 during the

federal shutdown

.

CONTINGENCY FUNDS

A coalition of Democratic-led states

sued the administration

last week to draw on

contingency funds

and other sources of funds to pay for the benefits after

the USDA said last month it would suspend SNAP benefits starting

November 1.

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday that the USDA

is complying with U.S. District Judge John McConnell's order and

"will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP

contingency funds today."

While the administration said it would fully deplete the

$5.25 billion in contingency funds, it would not use other

funding that would allow it to fully fund SNAP benefits, which

cost $8 billion to $9 billion per month.

Skye Perryman, CEO and president of Democracy Forward, which

represented the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement the

group is "considering all legal options to secure payment of

full funds."

Senator Amy Klobuchar, top Democrat on the Senate

Agriculture Committee, also said full benefits should be paid.

"It is not enough to do the bare minimum - the administration

should stop playing politics with hunger and use all available

resources to ensure Americans can put food on the table,"

Klobuchar said in a statement.

The administration said $600 million would be used to fund

states' administrative costs in administering SNAP benefits,

leaving $4.65 billion to cover 50% of eligible households'

current allotments.

UNPRECEDENTED PAYMENTS

States will need to calculate the partial benefit amount

for recipients and then transmit that information to their

contracted Electronic Benefit Transfer processor, which then

loads SNAP recipients' EBT cards with their benefits.

Conduent ( CNDT ), an EBT processor that works with 37 states, said

it would be able to move quickly once it receives updated

benefit information from states.

SNAP benefits are paid out monthly to eligible Americans

whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line, or

$1,632 a month for a one-person household and $2,215 for a

two-person household in many areas.

McConnell and another judge in Boston, U.S. District Judge

Indira Talwani, said on Friday the administration had the

discretion to also tap a separate fund holding around $23

billion.

Penn said in the court filing the agency is carefully

considering using those funds but determined they must remain

available for child nutrition programs instead of SNAP.