Well, the courts say this is what emergency funds are for.

Emergencies.

Two judges telling the Trump administration they've got to fund food benefits even with the government jet down.

Plus a thwarted terror plot.

The FBI director says a Halloween plot has been foiled. Well, thank God. But 15 hours since

that announcement, we're pretty scant on details. And later, can you believe there's a Jeffrey Epstein

investigation you did not know about? We've got the reporter who uncovered a years-long money laundering probe.

Tonight, I'm Laura Coates Live.

You know that phrase trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents?

Well, it's a reality for 42 million Americans tonight, first faced with the

cruelty of the rug being pulled out from underneath them with their SNAP benefits in jeopardy.

And now with tonight's news that the government has only kicked their pain can down the road.

Let me break this down, okay? Snap benefits average about $187 a month per recipient.

That means it costs the feds about $8 billion each month,

and Congress has to replenish that with appropriations.

There's also an emergency fund in case there are any shortfalls.

And that's what states were asking the federal government to use.

Within an hour of each other, two federal courts agreed. In two separate rulings, federal judges in

Rhode Island, in Massachusetts, telling the administration that they've got to tap into those

emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits.

Now, this is the figurative 15 cents part of that dollar.

Now, usually the administration fights a ruling it does not like.

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