By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Partial benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will continue, though people could experience a delay in receiving them, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 2024, Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which administers SNAP benefits, estimated that 6,145 people a month in Barren County used SNAP benefits to purchase food. The Trump Administration previously said that SNAP would not be funded if the federal government shutdown continued into November.
After two federal judges ruled that the program freeze was unlawful, the U.S. department filed a four-page response on Nov. 3 saying it will fund benefits out of the department’s contingency fund, but not by tapping in to other reserves, such as from the Child Nutrition Program.
Deputy Under Secretary for Food Nutrition and Consumer Services Patrick Penn said the department will use the remaining $4.65 billion in the contingency fund to pay out SNAP benefits “that will be obligated to cover 50 percent of eligible households’ current allotments.”
“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” the court record Penn signed stated.
Warning of “procedural difficulties that states will likely experience,” Penn’s court filing stated it is unclear how some states will handle the reduction of benefits that may lead to “significant delays.”
“Given the variation among State systems, some of which are decades old, it is unclear how many States will complete the changes in an automated manner with minimal disruption versus manual overrides or computations that could lead to payment errors and significant delays,” the court record stated.
The court filings do not specify what will happen if the government shutdown continues into December.
