USDA Works to Comply with Judge’s Order to Pay Full Food Aid Benefits
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday it was working to comply with a judge’s order to pay full food aid benefits for nearly 42 million low-income Americans within the day, even as President Donald Trump’s administration urged an appeals court to relieve it of that obligation.
The USDA memo came the same day that the administration also asked a federal appeals court to block the judge’s order. The order issued Thursday blocked the administration’s prior plan to only partially fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the longest-ever federal government shutdown.
“FNS (USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service) is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District Court of Rhode Island,” said the memo sent from Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, to state and regional SNAP administrators.
The USDA did not respond to questions about the memo.
It sent the memo out even as the U.S. Department of Justice urged a federal appeals court to block a Thursday order by a Rhode Island judge requiringUSDAby Friday use $4 billion set aside for other purposes to ensure Americans receive full rather than reduced SNAP benefits in November.
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Officials in California, New Jersey and Wisconsin confirmed that some SNAP recipients already received their full November payments.
“Food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
In Wisconsin, more than $104 million of monthly food benefits became available at midnight on electronic cards for about 337,000 households, said Britt Cudaback, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Uncertainty Remains for Many SNAP Recipients
The court wrangling prolonged weeks of uncertainty for the food program that serves about 1 in 8 Americans, mostly with lower incomes.
An individual can receive a monthly maximum food benefit of nearly $300 and a family of four up to nearly $1,000, although many receive less than that under a formula that takes into consideration their income.
For some SNAP participants, it remained unclear when they would receive their benefits.
Jasmen Youngbey of Newark, New Jersey, waited in line Friday at a food pantry in the state’s largest city. As a single mom attending college, Youngbey said she relies on SNAP to help feed her 7-month-old and 4-year-old sons. But she said her account balance was at $0.
“Not everybody has cash to pull out and say, ‘OK, I’m going to go and get this,’ especially with the cost of food right now,” she said.
Later Friday, Youngbey said, she received her monthly SNAP benefits.
Tihinna Franklin, a school bus guard who was waiting in the same line outside the United Community Corporation food pantry, said her SNAP account balance was at 9 cents and she was down to three items in her freezer. She typically relies on the roughly $290 a month in SNAP benefits to help feed her grandchildren.
“If I don’t get it, I won’t be eating,” she said. “My money I get paid for, that goes to the bills, rent, electricity, personal items. That is not fair to us as mothers and caregivers.”
The Legal Battle Over SNAP Takes Another Twist
Because of the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration originally had said SNAP benefits would not be available in November. However, two judges ruled last week that the administration could not skip November’s benefits entirely because of the shutdown. One of those judges was U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr., who ordered the full payments Thursday.
In both cases, the judges ordered the government to use one emergency reserve fund containing more than $4.6 billion to pay for SNAP for November but gave it leeway to tap other money to make the full payments, which cost between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month.
On Monday, the administration said it would not use additional money, saying it was up to Congress to appropriate the funds for the program and that the other money was needed to shore up other child hunger programs.
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Thursday’s federal court order rejected the Trump administration’s decision to cover only 65% of the maximum monthly benefit, a decision that could have left some recipients getting nothing for this month.
In its court filing Friday, Trump’s administration contended that Thursday’s directive to fund full SNAP benefits runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution.
“This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in its request to the court.
In response, attorneys for the cities and nonprofits challenging Trump’s administration said the government has plenty of available money and the court should “not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now.”
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States Are Taking Different Approaches to Food Aid
Some states said they stood ready to distribute SNAP money as quickly as possible.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said people who normally receive benefits early in each month should get their full SNAP allotment within 48 hours of funds becoming available, and others should receive their full benefits on their regularly scheduled dates.
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services said that partial SNAP benefits were distributed Friday, based on the Trump administration’s previous decision. Officials in Illinois and North Dakota also said they were distributing partial November payments, starting as soon as Friday.
In Missouri, the Department of Social Services said Friday that it was awaiting further federal guidance. Meanwhile, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer urged people to donate to a newly created local fund for emergency food assistance
Amid the federal
