Trump mulling emergency funds for SNAP food benefits: Bessent

President Trump wants to ensure that low-income Americans get their food stamp benefits and “could” tap into a contingency fund as soon as Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“President Trump just Truthed out that he’s very anxious to get this done,” Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday about addressing the funding lapse.

“There’s a process that has to be followed. So we got to figure out what the process is. President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefit.”

Last week, a Rhode Island-based federal judge ordered the Department of Agriculture to tap into emergency fund to make partial payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which ran out of funds Saturday due to the government shutdown.

The judge directed the Trump administration to make partial payments for SNAP by Wednesday.

Previously, the Department of Agriculture penned a memo saying it didn’t have the legal authority to tap into that funding for SNAP.

Bessent explained that Trump has no intention of challenging that ruling and urged Democrats to reopen the government to avoid the SNAP shortfall.

“The best way for Snap benefits to get paid is for five Democrats to cross the aisle and reopen the government,” he said.