USDA revises SNAP reduction plan to provide more partial benefits in November

By Tami Luhby, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The US Department of Agriculture issued revised guidance to states on Wednesday evening that will result in food stamp enrollees receiving somewhat larger partial benefits in November.

The update, disclosed in a new court filing, calls for reducing the maximum Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit by 35%, instead of the original 50%.

The agency is issuing only partial benefits this month to comply with a court order requiring it to tap into SNAP’s contingency fund amid the government shutdown.

“USDA performed further analysis and determined that the maximum allotments need only be reduced by 35%, instead of 50%, to deplete the SNAP contingency fund,” Patrick Penn, a top USDA official, told the court.

The update comes shortly after a left-leaning think tank published an analysis arguing that the USDA’s original guidance called for cutting benefits more deeply than needed. The agency had said in a previous court filing it planned to use $4.65 billion in the fund to provide SNAP assistance this month.

However, the USDA’s initial plan would have provided only about $3 billion in food stamp benefits, which would have resulted in an average cut of 61% for the month, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis. The think tank asserted that only a 43% cut would be needed to keep spending in line with the available funds.

In addition to requiring the USDA to use the contingency fund to provide at least partial benefits, two federal judges also gave the USDA the option of shifting other money to SNAP to enable it to pay full benefits in November, but the agency declined, citing risks to other nutrition programs. Full benefits would total about $8.2 billion for November.

Still, some beneficiaries could receive less than 65% of their usual benefits because of the way food stamp aid is calculated. The formula calls for subtracting 30% of a household’s monthly net income from the maximum benefit for its household size. Most households have some income and don’t receive the maximum allotment.

The earlier analysis from the center, based on the 50% cut, found that nearly 5 million food stamp recipients would not receive any benefits in November. That’s because their usual allotment is less than the planned reduction in benefits.

And many households with at least some income would have received less than half of their normal assistance, according to the analysis.

“By cutting benefits even more deeply than necessary, the Administration — which previously argued (contrary to federal law and the Administration’s own prior practice) that SNAP’s contingency funds aren’t legally available to cover regular benefits — has once again gone out of its way to inflict further harm on low-income families,” the center wrote.

CNN has reached out to the USDA for comment on the analysis. The Justice Department, which represents USDA in court, said in Wednesday evening’s filing that the change was not made in response to a plaintiffs’ filing earlier in the evening that included the center’s analysis.

The lawsuit, one of two demanding that USDA tap into the contingency fund, was brought by a coalition of cities, nonprofits, unions and small businesses.

Delayed benefits

Just when food stamp enrollees will receive their partial benefits depends on where they live. States must reconfigure their systems to take into account the reduced payments. That could take some states that use older technology weeks – or even months – to implement, a top USDA official said in a court filing.

In North Carolina and Massachusetts, enrollees should receive their benefits next week, according to statements on the states’ websites.

But Pennsylvania wrote a letter to USDA on Wednesday saying the agency had chosen the “most complex and labor-intensive approach possible” to issue partial benefits.

The process will require 10,000 hours – a minimum of nine to 12 business days – to overhaul the state’s system, and it then would take another 10 days to issue benefits, according to the letter from Valerie Arkoosh, the state’s Department of Human Services secretary, which CNN has viewed. Also, the plan could increase Pennsylvania’s payment error rate.

Instead, the USDA should let states send food stamp recipients half of their usual benefit as a one-time issuance for November, Arkoosh said, noting that the agency used this method to provide Covid-19 pandemic food assistance during the first Trump administration.

“This will only further delay availability of food assistance for nearly 2 million Pennsylvanians who are currently not receiving benefits to which they are entitled, and result in wasted taxpayer dollars and long-term harm to Pennsylvania’s SNAP program,” Arkoosh wrote of the USDA’s guidance.

Continued legal proceedings

The delay in payments has raised fresh legal questions in cases challenging the administration’s initial decision to not provide SNAP benefits for November.

In his ruling last week that the administration must tap into the contingency fund to provide at least partial SNAP benefits this month, US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island ordered the government to work “expeditiously” to ensure payments are made.

But the coalition behind the legal challenge raced back to the court earlier this week, arguing the delayed payments meant the administration had run afoul of McConnell’s directive and urged the judge to issue a new order requiring the government to fully fund SNAP benefits for November.

The administration pushed back strongly on those assertions in court papers filed Wednesday afternoon, saying that since it had released the money from its contingency fund to states and provided guidance on how state officials can calculate reduced payments, “there is nothing more USDA could do.”

“The states are nonparties to this suit, and the court has not ordered them to, for example, hire additional technical staff or meet any particular deadlines. And Plaintiffs have not identified any authority for USDA to compel States to do anything other than distribute reduced benefits once the States have been authorized and the funds provided, as USDA has already done,” the government attorneys wrote.

McConnell has set a hearing over the issue for Thursday.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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