Vice President JD Vance on Thursday slammed a federal court ruling requiring the Trump administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for November, calling the decision “absurd” and an overreach during a government shutdown.
“It’s an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the middle of a Democrat government shutdown,” Vance said during a roundtable with Central Asian leaders at the White House.
Vance said the administration wants to restore full funding once Democrats agree to reopen the government, but argued that the court should not dictate how the administration prioritizes spending during a shutdown.
“What we’d like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government, of course,” he said.
“Then we can fund SNAP, and we can also do a lot of other good things for the American people.
“But in the midst of a shutdown, we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation,” Vance said.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled earlier Thursday that the administration’s plan to issue partial payments failed to comply with his earlier order.
The Justice Department said it will appeal the ruling, leaving the fate of SNAP benefits for millions of Americans uncertain.
The Trump administration had planned to halt SNAP payments for roughly 42 million Americans this month amid the historic shutdown.
McConnell’s ruling followed two lawsuits demanding that benefits continue uninterrupted.
Last week, the judge required the administration to exhaust a $5 billion SNAP contingency fund, though that amount falls short of the roughly $9 billion needed to fully cover November benefits.
Vance said the White House is working to prioritize critical operations while balancing legal obligations and fiscal responsibility.
“We’ll comply with the law, of course,” Vance said.
“But we’re also going to make the government work for people in the best way we can.”
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