United States
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Trump administration orders states to pause paying full SNAP benefits
As the shutdown drags on, USDA demands that states “immediately undo” any steps they have taken to send full November payments to recipients of the food assistance program.
The Trump administration over the weekend ordered states to stop distributing full food assistance benefits for November to the 42 million low-income Americans at risk of food insecurity — stretching out an ongoing fight between the federal government and states as the government shutdown entered its sixth week.
A memo from the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service issued late Saturday night orders states to “immediately undo any steps taken to issue” full payments to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, often called food stamps.
Instead, the White House is demanding that states issue only partial payments of about 65 percent of a usual monthly benefit.
The USDA memo warns states that if they do not comply with the order, they will face consequences, including the cancellation of federal funding that states need to cover some administrative expenses.
The federal government pays for all SNAP benefits, but states administer the program to residents.
SNAP is a vital lifeline for millions of people — mostly children, the elderly and adults with disabilities — who rely on it to afford groceries. The funding holdup caused by the government shutdown has left families across the country in agonized uncertainty as they stretch budgets while waiting for aid.
SNAP is not the only federal program that’s been a point of contention as the shutdown continued for its 40th day. Obamacare subsidy premiums are one issue at the heart of the impasse in Washington.
And the Trump administration has also reduced the number of flights to cut strain on the country’s air traffic controllers, most of whom are working mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown without pay. That’s leading to headaches for travelers across the country, a problem officials say is “only going to get worse” the longer the shutdown continues.
The latest upheaval over food stamps came after a Rhode Island judge on Thursday directed the Trump administration to release November SNAP benefits in full by Friday.
At first, the Trump administration said Friday it was working to release the benefits to comply with the judge’s order — suggesting that the money would indeed be disbursed. At the same time, the administration appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
Late Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked the Rhode Island judge’s order to allow time for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to issue its ruling on the lower court’s order.
Some states, like Wisconsin and Maryland, had begun disbursing benefits Friday, following the Rhode Island ruling, leaving them scrambling to respond over the weekend.
In Wisconsin — where nearly 700,000 residents received their SNAP payments Friday — Gov. Tony Evers (D) said that his state had “legally loaded benefits to cards.”
“After we did so, the Trump Administration assured Wisconsin and other states that they were actively working to implement full SNAP benefits for November and would ‘complete the processes necessary to make funds available.’ They have failed to do so to date,” Evers said in a statement Sunday.
Evers, along with several other governors and state attorneys general, are asking the appellate court to reject the administration’s effort to stop full SNAP payments. Soon after the letter from state leaders was filed, USDA sent the states the latest memo ordering them to stop the disbursement of full SNAP benefits.
“Our administration is actively in court fighting against the Trump Administration’s efforts to yank food assistance away from Wisconsin’s kids, families, and seniors, and we are eager for the court to resolve this issue by directing the Trump Administration to comply with court orders,” Evers’s statement said.
Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond’s law school, said it would not be “lawful” for USDA to claw back benefits that it had earlier provided without granting due process.
But Tobias acknowledged that the USDA memo could have a chilling effect on states’ efforts to continue providing benefits to people in November.
In his Thursday order, the Rhode Island judge, John J. McConnell Jr., admonished the Trump administration for opting to make only partial SNAP payments, saying the administration knew this would only further delay getting aid to people. He ordered the administration to tap into a $23 billion fund for school lunch and child nutrition programs to pay for full SNAP benefits in November.
USDA, however, has repeatedly refused to tap into that money, arguing that it is separate from SNAP and that the government does not have funds because of “congressional failure” to appropriate new money. In court papers, the administration said it would not “raid an entirely different program” because it could lead to a shortfall in funding school meals.
In a statement Sunday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) said residents who have already received SNAP money on their cards “should continue to spend it on food.” Those funds, she said, were following guidelines the administration issued after the Rhode Island court decision and before the Supreme Court order.
“If President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court,” Healey said.
For their part, Trump officials are standing firm on their position of holding back on providing all SNAP benefits, which costs about $9 billion a month to fund.
The administration is “very carefully studying the law and trying to get as much money out the door as is legal,” Kevin Hassett, Trump’s longest-serving economic adviser, told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“We are very glad that we found a way to get a lot of the SNAP money out, but it’s really, really pushing the boundaries of the law, which is why the Supreme Court had to take that ruling from Rhode Island and put it on hold,” Hassett said. “The president’s job, and all of our jobs, is to uphold the law.”
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