The Trump administration is using funding reserves to pay for roughly half of the November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. It previously said it couldn’t use that money and that regular funding had dried up because of the federal government shutdown.

Lawmakers questioned Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Charlie Brereton about the timeline to send out partial payments.

“If all goes as planned, we do expect benefits should be loaded to EBT cards throughout next week and potentially into the week of Nov. 17.” Brereton said.

Lawmakers also asked the director whether the department will dip into surplus funding from another program that gives financial assistance to low-income families.

Brereton said the department had researched

See Full Page