The stop will not affect Feb's food voucher benefits: USDA

Recipients of food stamps will have access to all their benefits for the month of February, even if the partial closure of the government continues, announced Tuesday evening officials of the US Department of Agriculture.

The USDA said they would work with states to charge benefits on beneficiary cards by January 20, just before the deadline for a provision allowing them to pay benefits even without a budget .

Brandon Lipps, a director of food and nutrition services, told reporters that they planned to pay the total profits of $ 4.8 billion from the additional aid program to the Nutrition, or SNAP, in February, which should cover the benefits of all 38 million Americans using the program. like food vouchers.

"I know the benefits of these benefits will be of great concern throughout America," Sonny Perdue, secretary of agriculture, told reporters Tuesday night.

"You've heard me say before our motto at the USDA is" do it right and feed everyone. "With this solution, I think the diet is managed by all the people. world and I think that the plan we have developed takes into account what needs to be done, "he said.

Food stamp users will be able to access it earlier than usual. USDA officials have said that this is similar to how they can deliver benefits early in natural disasters and that states will need to speed up their normal process of distributing benefits quickly.

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The USDA said the ministry was using a provision of the current resolution that expired December 21, allowing agencies to spend money in the 30 days, even without his budget for the next fiscal year.

"The expiring resolution allows the federal government to require payments within 30 days of its expiration for particular programs, including the SNAP program," Lipps said. "In this scenario, states will have until January 20, ie within this 30-day period, to obligate these funds and make them available on the recipient's cards, which will allow us to access the funds in under this resolution. "

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million. Lipps said anyone applying for benefits in February should adhere to the standard schedule.

The department will not use the $ 3 billion reserve fund for SNAP, which would not have been able to cover all benefits paid each month. Some people who receive food stamps said they feared to have less money to buy healthy food if they only received a percentage of their usual profits.

Danielle Baker, a mother of four from Oklahoma, told ABC News that her family should reduce her consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables if she loses some of her benefits.

"It's too difficult to buy fresh food with the little money we have on her paychecks," she told Start News on the payout slip. her husband.

Other nutrition programs such as the Women's Program, Infants and children, or WIC, and programs that provide school meals have enough money to continue in March, said Lipps.

The USDA announced that it would immediately begin looking for options offering benefits as early as March, as soon as these have been fixed. Mr Perdue said he was encouraging congressional leaders to fully fund the USDA before another solution was needed.

"We are proposing an extra month of SNAP benefits with this solution, I think Congress has enough time to act," he told reporters. [ad_2]
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