Federal judge rules against Trump administration's proposal that would have rid food stamps for 700,000

• On Sunday, a federal judge struck down the Trump administration's proposal that would have disqualified nearly 700,000 American adults from food stamps.
• The Trump administration's proposed change to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program would have made it more difficult for Americans to qualify for the program.
• The proposed rule's impact would have likely been larger during the pandemic. The ruling cited that as of May 2020, SNAP rosters added over 6 million new enrollees.

A federal judge on Sunday struck down the Trump administration's proposal that would have kicked off nearly 700,000 American adults from food stamps.

According to the ruling of D.C. US District Court, the Trump administration's proposed changes to alter Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) "radically and abruptly alters decades of regulatory practice, leaving States scrambling and exponentially increasing food insecurity for tens of thousands of Americans."

Last year, the Trump administration proposed a series of changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program which tightened requirements for Americans to be eligible to qualify for the program. An analysis from the Urban Institute estimated the proposals combined could kick off around 3.7 million low-income Americans of food stamps.

Even as the pandemic began to hit the United States, the Trump administration announced in March it would move forward with the proposal to raise the bar to qualify for SNAP. It was estimated in March this change would have disqualified nearly 700,000 American adults from food stamps.

The ruling noted the USDA, the agency administering the program, has been "icily silent" about how many American adults would have been denied from SNAP benefits during the pandemic. The federal ruling cited that "as of May 2020, SNAP rosters have grown by over 17 percent with over 6 million new enrollees" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The USDA did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Meanwhile, many Americans across the country are suffering from the financial insecurities of chronic unemployment. According to a survey by Pew in August, half of adults who lost a job due to the coronavirus pandemic remain unemployed and 60% who took a pay cut continue to make less than their income prior to March.

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