Pointing to the impact of the pandemic on the economy, a U.S. district judge vacated on Sunday a Trump administration regulation setting stricter time limits on SNAP benefits for able-bodied adults who do not work at least 20 hours a week. Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the district court for the District of Columbia said the USDA, which runs SNAP, failed to justify the regulation, which would end benefits for 700,000 people.
The rule affecting so-called ABAWDs — able-bodied adults without dependents — was the first of three regulations that the administration wanted to enact this year to narrow SNAP eligibility. An additional 3 million people would lose benefits under the other two rules.
Howell issued a preliminary injunction against the ABAWD rule on March 13, and Congress later suspended it during coronavirus legislation for the duration of the pandemic. By coincidence, President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 because of the coronavirus.
“The final rule at issue in this litigation radically and abruptly alters decades of regulatory practice, leaving states scrambling and exponentially increasing food insecurity for tens of thousands of Americans,” wrote Howell in a 67-page opinion. “Whether USDA could, usually a legally proper process, adequately explain how the final rule’s changes both comport with the statutory scheme (creating SNAP) and make sense is a question for another day. For now, the agency has not done so … the final rule is VACATED.”
A USDA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. A coalition of 19 states, the District of Columbia and New York City brought the lawsuit in January.
Without the court intervention, the ABAWD rule would have taken effect on April 1. It called for more stringent enforcement of the usual time limit of SNAP benefits — 90 days in a three-year period — for ABAWDs ages 18-49 unless they work at least 20 hours, are in a workfare program or take part in a job-training program. The 90-day limit was part of the 1996 welfare reform law.
Congress rejected broader and stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients as part of the 2018 farm policy law so the administration issued the ABAWD rule under its own authority in late 2019. The rule eliminated waivers from the 90-day limit for so-called labor surplus areas. Waivers were limited to smaller geographic areas than in the past and a higher unemployment rate, 6 percent, was required. The USDA estimated the ABAWD rule would cut SNAP spending by more than $1 billion a year.
“The [USDA] has been icily silent about how many ABAWDs would have been denied SNAP benefits had the changes sought in the Final Rule been in effect while the pandemic rapidly spread across the country and congressional action had not intervened to suspend any time limits on receipt of those benefits,” said Howell. “In the pandemic’s wake, as of May 2020, SNAP rosters have grown by over 17 percent with over 6 million new enrollees.”
By some estimates, only 10 percent of U.S. counties would be able to receive time-limit waivers under the ABAWD rule, compared to the current 97 percent. The USDA has not updated enrollment figures since April, when 43 million people were reported on SNAP. The USDA said some of the 43 million may be recipients of P-EBT, aimed at low-income families with school-age children.
The think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says enrollment exceeds 43 million. “While SNAP participation in most states is still substantially lower than during the peak months after the Great Recession, the increase so far due to Covid-19 has been rapid,” it said at the start of October.
The court opinion is available here.