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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has shelved its plan to level strict work requirements on people using food stamps, at least for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.



As of April, 1 the White House’s new rules would have required people without a disability or children to work 20 hours per week to qualify for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (colloquially known as food stamps). As businesses are shutting down all across the country to stop the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, millions of people were projected to lose this support.

But over the weekend, US District Court Judge Beryl Howell blocked the rule changes, finding them to be “arbitrary and capricious.” Then, on Wednesday, Trump signed a coronavirus response bill into law that explicitly reverses the Trump rule change — but only during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Department of Agriculture won’t say whether it will continue to fight the court case.

On Wednesday, a department spokesperson told the Associated Press the department “disagrees with the court’s reasoning and will appeal its decision.” But on Thursday, the department changed course. It refused to say one way or another whether it would appeal the ruling, and released a statement to BuzzFeed News saying, “we are going to comply with the legislation which really pauses that during this public health emergency.”