Trump Administration To Partially Pay SNAP Benefits: What It Means For FL

President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that it will partially fund SNAP payments to Florida recipients in November after a pair of judges’ rulings required it to keep the food aid program running.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture froze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over the weekend because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the government shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. It costs about $8 billion per month nationally.

NBC News reported the administration plans to use all $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover about half of each eligible household's SNAP benefits this month. The administration said it would need at least $4 billion in additional government funds to provide full SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps.

It’s not clear how much beneficiaries will receive, nor how quickly beneficiaries will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the nation’s largest food program, said last month that benefits for November wouldn’t be paid out due to the federal government shutdown. That set off a scramble by food banks, state governments and the nearly 42 million Americans who receive the aid to find ways to ensure access to groceries.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that the state’s agriculture department will “be doing more” to help the nearly 3 million Florida residents whose federal food assistance is at risk.

But the governor blamed state Democrats for any SNAP funding lapse, and will not follow their request to declare an emergency, tap into emergency funds and distribute food aid, The Miami Herald said.

“I’m getting letters from Democrats saying, ‘You should declare an emergency and create your own SNAP,’ when they’re the ones that are filibustering SNAP,” DeSantis said.

Last week, all 43 Democratic Florida state legislators wrote to the governor asking him to declare a state of emergency over the impending halt in SNAP funding.

“This is not speculation; it’s reality,” the lawmakers, led by state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell and state Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman, said in the letter. “We are days away from a full-blown hunger emergency that will leave families without food during the holiday season. The state cannot stand by.”

The analysis of USDA Food and Nutrition Service data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that 2,969,000 Florida residents receive SNAP assistance. That’s 13 percent of the state population (1 in 8) who depend on benefits to keep food on the table.

According to the data, more than 59 percent of SNAP participants in Florida are in families with children; more than 41 percent are in families with members who are older adults or are disabled; and more than 37 percent are in working families.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.