Trump Admin Threatens to Penalize States That Don’t ‘Undo’ Full SNAP Payments
“This president will stop at nothing to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids across America. Soulless,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
A driver accepts apples from a volunteers with Harris County Public Health during a Houston Food Bank drive at Bear Creek Pioneers Park in Houston, Texas on November 5, 2025.
(Photo by Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Nov 09, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department on Saturday threatened to penalize states that don’t “immediately undo” steps taken to pay out full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for November following a Supreme Court order that temporarily allowed the administration to withhold billions of dollars of aid.
In a memo, the US Department of Agriculture warned that “failure to comply” with the administration’s directive “may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the federal share of state administrative costs and holding states liable for any overissuances that result from the noncompliance.”
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Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement that it appears the Trump administration is “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,” said Craig.
The USDA memo came after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that had required the Trump administration to distribute SNAP funds in full amid the ongoing government shutdown. SNAP is funded by the federal government and administered by states.
The administration took steps to comply with the district court order while also appealing it, sparking widespread confusion. Some states, including Massachusetts and California, moved quickly to distribute full benefits late last week. Some reported waking up Friday with full benefits in their accounts.
“In the dead of night, the Trump administration ordered states to stop issuing SNAP benefits,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in response to the Saturday USDA memo. “This president will stop at nothing to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids across America. Soulless.”
Under the Trump administration’s plan to only partially fund SNAP benefits for November, the average recipient will see a 61% cut to aid and millions will see their benefits reduced to zero, according to one analysis.
Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center, stressed in a statement that “the Trump administration all along has had both the power and the authority to ensure that SNAP benefits continued uninterrupted, but chose not to act and to actively fight against providing this essential support.”
“Meanwhile, millions of Americans already struggling to make ends meet have been left scrambling to feed their families,” said FitzSimons. “Families and states are experiencing undue stress and anxiety with confusing messages coming from the administration. The Trump administration’s decision to continue to fight against providing SNAP benefits furthers the unprecedented humanitarian crisis driven by the loss of the nation’s most important and effective anti-hunger program.”
President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Department on Saturday threatened to penalize states that don’t “immediately undo” steps taken to pay out full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for November following a Supreme Court order that temporarily allowed the administration to withhold billions of dollars of aid.
In a memo, the US Department of Agriculture warned that “failure to comply” with the administration’s directive “may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the federal share of state administrative costs and holding states liable for any overissuances that result from the noncompliance.”
‘Illegal, Immoral, and Absolutely Cruel’: Trump Says He’ll Defy Court Order on SNAP Payments
‘As Ugly and Cruel As It Gets’: Trump Fights Order to Fully Fund November SNAP Benefits
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement that it appears the Trump administration is “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,” said Craig.
The USDA memo came after Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that had required the Trump administration to distribute SNAP funds in full amid the ongoing government shutdown. SNAP is funded by the federal government and administered by states.
The administration took steps to comply with the district court order while also appealing it, sparking widespread confusion. Some states, including Massachusetts and California, moved quickly to distribute full benefits late last week. Some reported waking up Friday with full benefits in their accounts.
“In the dead of night, the Trump administration ordered states to stop issuing SNAP benefits,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in response to the Saturday USDA memo. “This president will stop at nothing to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids across America. Soulless.”
Under the Trump administration’s plan to only partially fund SNAP benefits for November, the average recipient will see a 61% cut to aid and millions will see their benefits reduced to zero, according to one analysis.
Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center, stressed in a statement that “the Trump administration all along has had both the power and the authority to ensure that SNAP benefits continued uninterrupted, but chose not to act and to actively fight against providing this essential support.”
“Meanwhile, millions of Americans already struggling to make ends meet have been left scrambling to feed their families,” said FitzSimons. “Families and states are experiencing undue stress and anxiety with confusing messages coming from the administration. The Trump administration’s decision to continue to fight against providing SNAP benefits furthers the unprecedented humanitarian crisis driven by the loss of the nation’s most important and effective anti-hunger program.”
With Food Banks in ‘Disaster Response Mode,’ Supreme Court Lets Trump Pause SNAP Funds
“This is insane,” said US Rep. Pramila Jayapal. “Trump is jumping through hoops to block SNAP.”
“This is insane,” said US Rep. Pramila Jayapal. “Trump is jumping through hoops to block SNAP.”
Volunteers hand out boxes of food at a drivethrough food distribution site provided by LA Food Bank on November 5, 2025.
(Photo by Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jake Johnson
Nov 08, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
The US Supreme Court late Friday temporarily blocked a lower court order that required the Trump administration to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits as the government shutdown drags on with no end in sight.
One wrinkle in the case is that the Supreme Court order, which came after the Trump administration appealed the lower court directive, was handed down by liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her brief order came after the Massachusetts-based US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit opted not to swiftly intervene in the case.
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Jackson, who is tasked with handling emergency issues from the 1st Circuit, wrote that her administrative stay in the case will end 48 hours after the appeals court issues a ruling in the case.
The justice’s order came after states across the US had already begun distributing SNAP benefits after a district court judge directed the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in funds by Friday.
“Some people woke up Friday with the money already on the debit-like EBT cards they use to buy groceries,” NPR reported.
Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote Friday that “it may surprise folks that Justice Jackson, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the court’s behavior on emergency applications from the Trump administration, acquiesced in even a temporary pause of the district court’s ruling in this case.”
He continued:
But as I read the order, which says a lot more than a typical “administrative stay” from the Court, Jackson was stuck between a rock and a hard place—given the incredibly compressed timing that was created by the circumstances of the case.
In a world in which Justice Jackson either knew or suspected that at least five of the justices would grant temporary relief to the Trump administration if she didn’t, the way she structured the stay means that she was able to try to control the timing of the Supreme Court’s (forthcoming) review—and to create pressure for it to happen faster than it otherwise might have. In other words, it’s a compromise—one with which not everyone will agree, but which strikes me as eminently defensible under these unique (and, let’s be clear, maddening and entirely f-ing avoidable) circumstances.
The Trump administration has fought tooth and nail to flout its legal obligation to distribute SNAP funds during the shutdown as low-income Americans grow increasingly desperate and food bank demand skyrockets.
“This is insane,” US Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote after the administration appealed to the Supreme Court. “Trump is jumping through hoops to block SNAP. Follow the law, fund SNAP, and feed American families.”
Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts—one of the states that quickly moved to process SNAP benefits following the district court order—said in a statement that “Trump should never have put the American people in this position.”
“Families shouldn’t have had to go hungry because their president chose to put politics over their lives,” said Healey.
Feeding America, a nonprofit network of hundreds of food banks across the US, said Friday that food banks bought nearly 325% more food through the organization’s grocery purchase program during the week of October 27 than they did at the same time last year.
Donations to food banks, which were underresourced even prior to the shutdown, have also skyrocketed. The head of a Houston food bank said the organization is in “disaster response mode.”
“Across the country, communities are feeling the real, human impact the shutdown is having on their neighbors and communities,” said Linda Nageotte, president and chief operating officer at Feeding America. “Families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities are showing strength through the hardship, and their communities are standing beside them—giving their time and money, and advocating so no one faces hunger alone.”
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