Trump Food-Stamp Cuts Blocked by Judge Who Cites Pandemic

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-14/trump-food-stamp-cuts-blocked-by-judge-who-cites-pandemic?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&fbclid=IwAR2EwnbV4TxNcMHDVdNN7-UUSEDRKQCzg4LFurb0ntgPg7LOMNYixnmrXFs

By Robert Burnson
March 13, 2020, 10:40 PM EDT

A federal judge in Washington put off much of the Trump administration’s effort to make it harder for poor Americans to get food assistance, in a blistering ruling that not only criticized the White House but chided other courts for having too often “rolled over” to the president’s demands.

In an 84-page ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued a nationwide injunction that blocks two of the three changes the White House had made to the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The changes tighten the rules that states, who administer the program programs, must follow when extending food-stamp benefits beyond three months. They would cut off benefits to about 700,000 people, at a time when the coronavirus is spreading across the country, Howell wrote. She allowed to let stand a provision that would limit states’ ability to carry over unused discretionary exemptions for the three-month limit.

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