‘ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS’

Judge Rips Trump Administration, Blocks Food Stamps Cutback

A rule change would have stripped benefits from some 700,000 struggling Americans.

“Arbitrary and capricious.” That’s how a federal judge described the Trump administration’s plan to deny food stamps to some 700,000 out-of-work Americans in the middle of a pandemic, The Washington Post reported. Nineteen states sued to block a rule change that would have stripped them of the ability to extend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to people who were not working. In striking down the rule in a blistering opinion, Judge Beryl Howell said it “radically and abruptly alters decades of regulatory practice, leaving States scrambling and exponentially increasing food insecurity for tens of thousands of Americans.” The Agriculture Department had no immediate comment.