USDA MUST FUND SNAP

Agency ordered to tap contingency reserves to provide food aid to 42 million people.

- KEVIN RECTOR

THE LOS ANGELES Food Bank was preparing for weekend lines similar to those seen during the pandemic.

Two federal judges told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in separate rulings Friday that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to provide federal food assistance to poor American families despite the federal shutdown, but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.

Both Obama-appointed judges rejected Trump administration arguments that more than $5 billion in USDA contingency funds could not legally be tapped to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for nearly 42 million people - about 1 in 8 Americans - while the federal government remains closed. But both also left unclear how exactly the relief should be provided, or when it will arrive for millions of families set to lose benefits starting Saturday.

The two rulings came almost simultaneously Friday.

In Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani stopped short of granting California and a coalition of 24 other Democratic-led states a temporary restraining order they had requested. But she ruled that the states were likely to succeed in their arguments that the USDA's total shutoff of SNAP benefits - despite having billions in emergency contingency funds on hand - was unlawful.