The federal government will use contingency funds to distribute partial food benefits for the 42 million Americans who rely on the assistance program, sometimes referred to as food stamps.

In a court filing Monday morning, an official for the Department of Agriculture wrote the agency will “deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits” for November.

According to court filings, the agency has approximately $4.65 billion in contingency funding. It is not currently known how much the 540,000 households in Washington that receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will receive.

The regular federal funding used to administer the benefits – roughly $8 billion a month, or an average of $187 per recipient – ran out last week, sparking m

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