Two federal judges said yesterday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $US5.3 billion ($8.1 billion) remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.

Hours later, President Donald Trump said he has instructed the administration's lawyers to ask the courts how it can legally fund the benefits as quickly as possible because the attorneys "do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have avail

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