Not All…
The back and forth effort to use feeding Americans as leverage against Democrats and even Republican lawmakers gets a grown up answer from the Trump Agriculture Sec.
65% is the goal vs 50% they told the judge they could do a few days ago…..
Of course THAT isn’t 100%….
And?
There IS gonna be a lag in Federal payments….
The Trump people display their lack of knowledge of how the US Government works in this snafu….
The Trump administration will provide recipients of the nation’s largest food aid program with 65 percent of their monthly benefits in November, officials informed state agencies in a memo Wednesday night.
The number is an increase from the 50 percent of benefits USDA initially planned to fund this month as the government shutdown drags into its sixth week.
The revised guidance, which was obtained by POLITICO, comes after USDA found that the $4.65 billion it’s withdrawing from a contingency fund would pay for more benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program than officials thought.
“Further analysis found more room in the contingency,” USDA spokesperson Alec Varsamis confirmed in a statement. “All of this would be solved if Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government.”
USDA first sent guidance to states about reducing November benefits on Tuesday after a federal judge required the administration to tap emergency funds to support the nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the program. This latest news could further delay the rollout of food aid to families as states figure out how to reprogram the benefit issuances with the new amounts.
Pennsylvania has warned that it could take up to three weeks to get SNAP money to recipients in the state. Nevada, which on Wednesday issued $29 million in food aid payments based on USDA’s earlier calculation, will likely have to make further changes. And several other states are still scrambling to figure out their timelines for delivering the money.
“This is a fundamentally unworkable strategy that they’re trying to have states do. It would require us to completely overhaul our eligibility system,” said a Pennsylvania Department of Human Services official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It’s a logistical nightmare.”
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