"How it works: The USDA said in court documents that states will face "procedural difficulties" that could stop payments from "reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts." The USDA said it will tell states the effective date for reductions, and how much those reductions will be, the documents say. States will use the USDA's guidelines to decide how much should be sent to households in each state."
"Reality check: The USDA says that state systems differ, and some are "decades old" - so it is unclear how long they will need to complete the necessary changes to avoid payment disruptions, errors or delays. "For at least some States, USDA's understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months," per the filing."
USDA will comply with a court order to partially pay SNAP benefits using $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover roughly half of benefits for all eligible households. The action follows a judge's order for a plan to make SNAP payments during the government shutdown. USDA warned that procedural difficulties and decades-old state eligibility systems could delay or cause errors in distributing correctly reduced benefits. USDA will notify states of the effective reduction dates and amounts, and states must recode eligibility systems per USDA guidelines. Transferring Child Nutrition funds to SNAP was deemed an unacceptable risk. Roughly 42 million Americans are enrolled in SNAP.
Read at Axios
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