WASHINGTON – In a possible shutdown reprieve for millions of families on the brink of losing food aid , two federal judges have ruled the Trump administration cannot stop funding for SNAP benefits.

Regular funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits was due to run out on Saturday, Nov. 1. “The well has run dry,” the Agriculture Department said.

But rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, issued within minutes of each other on Oct. 31, ordered the department to use $5.25 billion in contingency funds to continue SNAP.

"There is no doubt and it is beyond argument that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn't already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food, for their family," U.S. District Judge J

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