NC attorney general addresses SNAP lawsuit as Trump administration seeks to block funding

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — As North Carolinians suffer from the impact of the government shutdown, including the loss of SNAP benefits, the state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit last week against the Trump administration.

CBS 17 previously reported that the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture accused the federal government of purposely keeping $230 million in food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would go toward feeding 1.4 million North Carolina residents.

“Nearly 600,000 children in our state could be without food in a few days because USDA is playing an illegal game of shutdown politics,” North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a statement in October. “They have emergency money to help feed children during this shutdown, and they’re refusing to spend it. I warned them last week that I would take them to court if they tried to hurt our kids. Today, that’s what we’re doing.”

Jackson told CBS 17 during a press conference on Friday that North Carolina residents should have received their SNAP benefits to their EBT cards as of 5 a.m. that morning.

“NCDHHS is working around the clock,” said Jackson, “And they were able to get those payments out today.”

He said SNAP, with money from the USDA, the payments made were at roughly 50% of the normal amount, although he is pushing for full.

“Once the Department of Agriculture announced they were effectively zeroing out SNAP, we took them to court, we won,” Jackson said. “Now, we’re just fighting over what the remedy would look like.”

Jackson was at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina with volunteers as he rolled up his sleeves and helped pack canned goods just before his press conference.

“This place is very busy, it needs to be,” he said. “We’re in a period of time where a lot of people need help.”

He, along with Amy Beros, president of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, said that the demand for food assistance has significantly risen.

Before the government shutdown, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC saw roughly 150,000 people a month. The number has increased by 20 to 60%  since the shutdown began.

“Our lines have gotten much longer and our phones are ringing off the hook,” said Beros. “We cannot fill the gap that SNAP has left.”

What is Trump doing about money for SNAP?

The Trump administration sought an emergency block on SNAP payments on Friday, according to the Associated Press. This comes after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to generate federal money to fund SNAP on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. told President Trump that the administration had until Friday to pay up.

However, President Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court on Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.

“The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP,” McConnell said in a ruling from the bench after a brief hearing. “They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial SNAP payments and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer.”

Judge McConnell was the second federal judge to make this ruling.

In its court filing on Friday, Trump’s administration contended that Thursday’s directive to fund full SNAP benefits runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.

“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in its request to the court.

For anyone interested in information about the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC can click right here.