The Council’s national partner, National Council of Nonprofits (NCN), with a coalition of community- and faith-based nonprofit organizations, small businesses and unions and local governments filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to help protect access to critical food assistance for millions of Americans during the federal government shutdown.
Beginning November 1, several federal programs including SNAP lost funding due to the government shutdown. Currently 1 in 6 Massachusetts residents with extremely low incomes use SNAP to buy groceries, nearly 70% of which are below the federal poverty level. The lawsuit challenged the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) refusal to use available funds to maintain SNAP benefits during the ongoing government shutdown, and its abrupt termination of existing waivers protecting part-time workers and job seekers from losing benefits in regions with few jobs. Together, these decisions threatened to cut off essential food support to more than 42 million people, including children, persons with disabilities, seniors and veterans, beginning November 1.
To learn more about the lawsuit, please click here.
Several other groups filed similar suits at the end of October, and as a result of the filings, federal judges in both Boston and Rhode Island issued orders for the Administration to use one emergency fund to fulfill partial SNAP benefits, with the option to use additional assets to fully fund the program, with a deadline of November 3 to decide.
As of November 3, the Administration has told a federal judge in Rhode Island that it will use contingency funds to make partial SNAP benefit payments. However, on November 4, Trump posted to Truth Social stating that SNAP benefits would not be paid until the end of the government shutdown, recanting on the Administration’s previous statement to the courts.
The Trump administration appealed the Rhode Island District Court’s ruling requiring the Trump administration to provide full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). However, that appeal was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, upholding U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr.’s ruling.
At the state level, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance announced it would pay partial benefits to participants between November 10-14.
One of the Council’s partners, Project Bread, has created a toolkit in English, Spanish and Portuguese for those who may be facing food insecurity during this time, along with a hotline to field questions and supply resources.
For any additional questions regarding these federal updates, please contact Caroline O’Neill.
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