The Trump administration said Monday it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for November, in response to courts ordering it to tap its contingency funds.
Until now, the Department of Agriculture had argued that the government shutdown did not constitute an emergency that would allow it to use the funds. But city and state officials filed two lawsuits arguing that the administration needed to step in.
“Per orders issued by the United States District Courts for the District of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, FNS intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the administration said in a filing ahead of a noon deadline given by U.S District Judge John McConnell.
Approximately 42 million people in the U.S. rely on SNAP benefits, which have become a major source of tension as the government shutdown continues. SNAP ran out of federal funding on Nov. 1, and some lawmakers were looking at that date as a pivotal point in negotiations to reopen the government. In the meantime, states have scrambled to try to figure out how to keep funding flowing to their residents.
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The USDA is expected to provide state agencies with data to calculate the benefits due to each household later Monday. The agency will also notify states “by what percentage maximum SNAP allotments are to be reduced,” to comply with the court order.
The agency acknowledged the challenges this will create for state agencies, arguing that the calculations of benefit amounts can take “from a few weeks to up to several months.”
“It is unclear how many States will complete the changes in an automated manner with minimal disruption versus manual overrides or computations that could lead to payment errors and significant delays,” the administration said in the filing.
Advocates argue USDA’s decision to partially fund SNAP benefits for November is not enough.
“We are reviewing the administration’s submission to the court and considering all legal options to secure payment of full funds. It shouldn’t take a court order to force our President to provide essential nutrition that Congress has made clear needs to be provided,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward (which is involved in one of the lawsuits over SNAP funding), told NOTUS in a statement.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated with additional reporting.
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