The Latest: Trump administration must fund SNAP payments during the shutdown, judges rule

Audio By Carbonatix

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.

The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their own funds to keep versions of the program going.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded after the ruling. That process often takes one to two weeks.

Here's the latest:

The challenge comes as James pushes back against the administration’s investigation of cases she brought against the president and the National Rifle Association, according to court documents unsealed Friday.

James filed a motion in August to block subpoenas issued by acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone for records related to the legal actions, claiming the Justice Department’s probe of the cases was retaliatory.

She also argued that Sarcone was improperly appointed and therefore lacked legitimate authority to authorize the subpoenas.

Dozens of court documents in the case have been filed under seal since August. Late Friday a federal judge in Manhattan granted James’ motion to unseal most of them, over the objection of the Justice Department.

Judge Lorna Schofield, however, has not yet ruled on the motion to quash the subpoenas.

An email seeking comment was sent to Sarcone’s office. A phone message was not immediately returned late Friday.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a major piece of the social safety net used by nearly 42 million, or about 1 in 8 Americans, to help buy groceries.

Originally known as the food stamp program, it has existed since 1964, serving low-income people, many of whom have jobs but don’t make enough to cover all basic costs.

There are income limits based on family size, expenses and whether households include someone who is elderly or has a disability.

Most participants are families with children, and more than 1 in 3 include older adults or someone with a disability.

Nearly 2 in 5 recipients are households where someone is employed.

Most participants have incomes below the poverty line, about $32,000 for a family of four, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Agriculture Department, which administers SNAP, says nearly 16 million children received benefits in 2023.

▶ Read more about how SNAP works

The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing shortages that were causing flight delays Friday at a number of airports, including in Boston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and the Washington, D.C., area. Airports serving the New York City area — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty — were also experiencing delays averaging around two hours, according to the FAA.

Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems throughout the month.

But Cirium said the data also showed a “broader slowdown” Thursday across the nation’s aviation system for the first time since the shutdown began Oct. 1, suggesting staffing-related disruptions may be spreading.

▶ Read more about the shutdown and U.S. aviation

Instacart said Friday that it will offer customers who receive SNAP benefits 50% on their next grocery order to ease strain as the government prepares to cut off food aid payments.

the company said any customer who placed an order in October using a SNAP/EBT card will be eligible for the discount, which will be available even if the government makes payments as planned on Nov. 1. Instacart said it is also expanding the number of food banks it supports through online food drives from 100 to 300.

The San Francisco-based grocery delivery company said both programs amount to $5 million in direct relief.

Instacart is one of several big companies reacting to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

▶ Read more about companies offering discounts to SNAP recipients

The president is returning to the weekly newsmagazine this weekend for the first time since the suit, which centered on its interview with Kamala Harris, was settled in the summer.

Trump was interviewed by CBS’ Norah O’Donnell on Friday at Mar-a-Lago for the appearance, which will air Sunday.

The president has a checkered history with television’s most popular newsmagazine. But he has signaled friendlier relations with CBS News after the takeover of its parent company this summer by new Paramount CEO David Ellison, the son of wealthy supporter Larry Ellison.

The president suggested on social media that the government would comply with court rulings to pay for food aid during the government shutdown but said more clarity is needed first.

“Even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” Trump said. Federal funds for the program are expected to be frozen starting Saturday.

“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding.”

He sought to blame Democrats for the delay and urged SNAP recipients to call Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The policy will severely undercut the ability of transgender troops who have been banned from the armed forces by the Trump administration to turn to peer boards to argue for their right to stay, according to a memo obtained by AP.

If military separation boards decide to allow transgender service members to remain in uniform, commanders can override those decisions, according to an Oct. 8 memo to all services from the Pentagon’s undersecretary for personnel and readiness. That breaks with longstanding policy that boards act independently.

It is the Pentagon’s latest step to drive transgender troops out of the armed forces following a presidential executive order. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in what they say is an effort to make the military more lethal.

The new memo also requires that trans service members appear before separation boards in uniforms that match the gender assigned to them at birth. If they do not, their absence can be used against them.

▶ Read more about the policy

An appeals court ruled in favor of the Trump administration and stopped a judge from trying to get daily updates from a Border Patrol official about the government’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.

The court said the order from U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis put her “in position of an inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator” and would have turned her into a supervisor of Greg Bovino, a violation of the separation of powers.

Ellis, concerned about allegations of excessive force and the use of tear gas against protesters, wanted daily updates from Bovino, starting Wednesday. But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals intervened that day and suspended the order, before going further and freezing it Friday.

Also Friday, advocates in a different case sued over what they called “inhumane” conditions at a Chicago-area immigration facility.

The renewed request came in a letter Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

“We also request that you provide all legal opinions related to these strikes and a list of the groups or other entities the President has deemed targetable,” the senators said in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Signatories included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as well as Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Patty Murray and Brian Schatz.

The letter said the administration so far “has selectively shared what has at times been contradictory information” with some members “while excluding others.”

Democrats and some Republicans have complained that the administration has failed to provide basic information about lethal strikes that U.S. forces have carried out against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific the last two months.

The president announced Friday that he would designate the West African nation “a country of particular concern” as it relates to religious freedom, a move that has been pushed by some U.S. lawmakers.

The designation does not necessarily mean that sanctions, which could include a ban on all non-humanitarian aid, will be imposed, but it is a step ahead of that.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Trump said via social media. “Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN.’”

Nigeria vehemently rejects such claims about persecution of Christians. Analysts say that while Christians are among those targeted, the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most attacks occur.

Trump said he would ask lawmakers to look into the matter and report back on what the response to the designation should be.

The president of the union representing air traffic controllers is calling on Congress to pass a clean continuing resolution to end the government shutdown, make sure federal workers get paid and then engage in bipartisan negotiation on other pressing issues.

Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the workers the union represents got no paycheck on Tuesday after receiving a partial check two weeks earlier. He said going without a full month’s pay or more would be unsustainable.

Daniels also said the situation is creating substantial distractions for individuals already engaged in extremely stressful work.

“The financial and mental strain increases risks within the National Airspace System, making it less safe with each passing day of the shutdown,” Daniels said in a statement.

Attorneys for YouTube’s parent company Alphabet last month sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a letter claiming the Biden administration pressed the social media site to delete content during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Sen. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s Democratic ranking member, on Friday publicly questioned that assessment in his own letter to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan.

Raskin wrote that the sworn testimony of 20 Alphabet employees contradicted the claims the company had made. He questioned whether YouTube was coerced to claim censorship by the Trump administration.

“What was Alphabet promised or threatened with in order to dance to this new MAGA tune?” Raskin asked in Friday’s letter.

Republicans argue the Biden administration illegally censored Americans through coercion to tech companies. Democrats dispute that narrative.

The federal judge ruled that Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers.

The ruling deals a blow to the administration and its allies who have argued that such a mandate is necessary to restore public confidence that only Americans are voting in U.S. elections.

“Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the States and to Congress, this Court holds that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., wrote in her opinion.

Kollar-Kotelly echoed comments she made when she granted a preliminary injunction over the issue.

The Republican chair and ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee have asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide the legal rationale for the U.S. military’s fatal attacks on alleged drug boats off the South American coast.

The senators also requested the directives Hegseth approved for the military strikes, which have killed at least 61 people in 14 attacks since early September. They also want the list of drug cartels that the Trump administration has designated as terrorist organizations in its justification for the use of military force.

The requests were made in two letters from late September and early October that were released Friday by Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, and Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

Lawmakers in both parties have raised questions about the use of military force without congressional approval. The Trump administration has shown no evidence to support its claims about the boats that have been attacked, their connection to drug cartels, or even the identity of the people killed in the strikes.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture committee that oversees the food aid program, said the court’s decision “confirms what we have said all week: The administration is choosing not to feed Americans in need, despite knowing that it is legally required to do so.”

The district court’s decision leaves “no excuse to withhold food assistance from Americans,” she said.

If the administration decides not to issue SNAP funds, she said, “it is purely a cruel political decision, not a legal one. They should immediately act — as the court has required — to ensure food assistance continues to go to families in need.”

A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled from the bench that the program must be funded using at least the contingency funds — and asked for an update on progress by Monday.

A Massachusetts-based judge also gave the administration until Monday to say whether it would partially pay for the benefits for November with contingency money or fund them fully with additional funds.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded after the ruling.

That process often takes one to two weeks.

The rulings are likely to face appeals.

Trump has long pushed Senate Republicans to get rid of the rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections and gives the minority Democrats a check on GOP power. He posted on social media late Thursday that the Senate should “Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!”

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune has repeatedly said he is not considering changing the rules even as he seeks to end the shutdown, arguing that the filibuster is vital to the institution of the Senate and has allowed them to halt Democratic policies when they are in the minority.

The leader’s “position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,” Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse said Friday.

A spokeswoman for Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican, said his position opposing a filibuster change also remains unchanged.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also defended the filibuster Friday, while conceding “it’s not my call.”

“The safeguard in the Senate has always been the filibuster,” Johnson said, adding that Trump’s comments are “the president’s anger at the situation.”

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown.

The rulings came a day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown.

The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net. Word in October that it would be a Nov. 1 casualty of the shutdown sent states, food banks and SNAP recipients scrambling to figure out how to secure food. Some states said they would spend their own funds to keep versions of the program going.

The program costs around $8 billion per month nationally.

The president announced the renovation and posted side-by-side photos of the before and after of the rehab of the bathroom attached to one of the most famous rooms in the White House.

“It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” Trump added. “I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble. This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!”

The White House says tours will restart Dec. 2, following their suspension for months due to the construction of Trump’s $300 million ballroom.

The East Wing was once part of tour routes, but has been demolished as part of the project.

The White House says it’ll now offer “an updated route offering guests the opportunity to experience the history and beauty of the People’s House.”

To mark the holidays, December tours feature Christmas decorations curated by first lady Melania Trump on the State Floor.

Congressional offices can begin submitting tour requests for their constituents on Monday. Such requests had been paused since the summer for ballroom construction.