Trump administration will tap emergency fund to pay partial food stamp benefits

The shutdown has deprived more than 40 million Americans of food assistance, known as Snap, since Saturday.

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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a court filing that Americans who receive food assistance will get half their normal monthly allotment, after the government dipped into emergency funding.

Judges had given the Trump administration until Monday to provide a plan for how it would pay out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits, also known as food stamps.

Funding for the programme has been in limbo due to the more-than-month-long shutdown.

While individual US states administer the benefits, the programme relies on money from the federal government, which has been unfunded and shut down since 1 October.