Trump administration orders states to stop making payments for SNAP food assistance benefits
The Trump administration over the weekend ordered states to stop distributing full food assistance benefits for November, a move that will impact the 42 million low-income Americans who rely on the federal program to keep their families fed.
A memo issued late Saturday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service orders states to “immediately undo any steps taken to issue” full payments to those who are receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Instead, the White House is asking states to issue partial payments, which would be about 65% of a typical SNAP payment. The memo threatens to impose financial penalties on states that do not comply with the order, including the cancellation of federal funding to cover SNAP’s administrative costs.
SNAP, the country’s largest anti-hunger program, has been thrown into chaos because of the government shutdown and the lack of funds to keep the program afloat. The program serves 1 in 8 Americans, and has already faced significant disruptions as the Trump administration insists it won’t fully fund SNAP while the government remains closed.
“Pending any explicit direction to the contrary … states must not transmit full benefit issuance files to EBT processors. Instead, states must continue to process and loan the partial issuance files that reflect the 35 percent reduction of maximum allotments,” the memo, written by USDA official Patrick Penn, states.
“To the extent states sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the memo says.
The White House and the Agriculture Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The federal government covers the cost of all SNAP benefits, but states administer the program to its residents. The states and federal government share the administrative costs.
The memo was issued after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday evening temporarily blocked a Rhode Island judge’s order, which directed the Trump administration to release November SNAP benefits in full by that same day.
Justice Jackson’s decision paused the Rhode Island judge’s order so that an appeals court could further review it, leaving the entire program in limbo. That judicial review remains underway, and the outcome of that decision could force the government to tap into a reserve fund totaling tens of billions to preserve full SNAP benefits.
Ahead of Justice Jackson’s decision, the Trump administration said Friday afternoon that it was working to release SNAP benefits and comply with the Rhode Island order. The announcement implied the SNAP funds would be disbursed, but the administration appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
States like New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin raced to release the aid to residents following the Rhode Island judge’s ruling. Some SNAP recipients had been without nutrition assistance for days.
Democrats expressed outrage over the Trump administration’s memo.
Rep Angie Craig of Minnesota, the top Democrat and the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement that the Trump administration was “demanding that food assistance be taken away from the households that have already received it.
“They would rather go door to door, taking away people’s food, than do the right thing and fully fund SNAP for November so that struggling veterans, seniors, and children can keep food on the table,” Ms. Craig said in a statement.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota posted on X: “The cruelty is the point.”
“It’s their choice to do this,” posted Ms. Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
