The Trump Administration says it will send partial SNAP payments this month, offering limited relief to 42 million Americans who rely on the federal food assistance program — including about 1.4 million people here in North Carolina.
The move follows a pair of federal court rulings that found the government acted unlawfully when it refused to release emergency SNAP funds during the ongoing federal shutdown. One of those cases was filed by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson with several other states.
Even still, there are questions about whether the administration will follow through. In a post on Truth Social Tuesday, President Donald Trump said payments would resume only once “Radical Left Democrats open up the government," a statement later contradicted by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said the administration would "fully comply" with the court orders.
WFAE's Nick de la Canal spoke with Jackson on Tuesday morning about the latest court rulings, and what happens next.
Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Nick de la Canal: We learned Monday the administration plans to send only partial SNAP payments this month. First, what’s your reaction to that decision?
Jeff Jackson: Well, I would say that we had a good legal outcome, but we still have a bad overall situation. The legal case was pretty simple. They had a reserve fund — the Agriculture Department. They were refusing to use it, and we said that was unlawful because Congress gave them that reserve fund and gave them instructions basically on what they wanted them to do with it, and it covered a situation like this.
So the court agreed with us, thankfully. And now they’re going to zero out that reserve fund over the next month. The issue is they’ve got about $4.6 billion in the reserve fund, but it costs about $9 billion a month to administer the SNAP program. So that comes in at right about 50%. That’s not, in any way, a good situation for those families — and in particular the 600,000 kids in our state that rely on SNAP — but it is a lot better than what the administration was trying to do, which was zero.
De la Canal: From your reading of the court order, do these partial payments satisfy what the judges required, or do you think the administration is still falling short?
Jackson: We’re still taking a look at the court order, and we're keeping our options open. But I'll tell you that right now, what our focus is on is compliance with that court order. So we want to make sure that the administration actually follows through on what the court has ordered them to do, and that those payments start getting out the door as quickly as possible.
De la Canal: Is there a chance your office and other states might take further legal action to push for full payments?
Jackson: There is a chance of that. We are still reviewing this and seeing what legal claims we could make, what other sources of funds may be available. But I will say, just to reiterate, right now our focus is on compliance with the court order that we just got.
De la Canal: I think people around North Carolina are anxious to know when they might actually see this money hit their accounts. I know that SNAP benefits are handled by state health officials, which is separate from your office, but what’s your sense of what families should realistically expect this week or next?
Jackson: You’re right, this is handled by NCDHHS (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services), which is not our office. We’ve been in conversation with them, and we understand they are really working around the clock. This requires a lot of recoding to make sure the right folks are getting the right amount. I know that they're going to do this as quickly as possible. My sense is that we’re going to get a more concrete forecast from them relatively soon.
De la Canal: At least for now, the government says it will make partial payments. What happens if the shutdown drags on for another month — or even into the new year — because these emergency funds won’t last forever?
Jackson: It would be a complete disaster. We cannot allow that to happen. The fund will run out no matters what happens by the end of this month. The shutdown needs to come to an end. The negotiators need to get in a room. The prospect of this thing dragging out for — as you said — another month or longer is completely unacceptable and the consequences would be severe.
De la Canal: What are you going to be watching for in the next week or two?
Jackson: We’re going to be watching for compliance to this, but we're also going to be doing what we can to support local food banks and get the word out that, hey there are a lot of people who aren’t going to have enough to eat, and they're going to turn to their local food banks.
I appreciate the governor — he got $18 million for food banks across the state. That is great, but we need to do more. I would ask folks, on your way home, consider stopping by the local Food Lion, or whatever your grocery store is, and picking up some food and dropping it off near a food bank. They really need it right now.
De la Canal: Finally, North Carolina and other states have now sued the Trump administration not just over SNAP funds but also withheld education funding, healthcare cuts, FEMA relief funds, and more. Is this new normal — with state versus federal lawsuits over funding — tenable? Or is this just the way things are now?
Jackson: I don’t know if this is the way things are now. I don't know (enough) to make a prediction about how the administration's going to act going forward.
What I will say is that our track record in going to court is extremely good at this point, because the criteria that we use are nonpartisan and objective: Did someone break the law? Did it hurt the state? Can I prove both of those things? If I can check all three of those boxes, I’m going to take you to court — and I’m probably going to win. So far, with respect to the administration, we have.
