USDA orders states to ‘undo’ steps to offer full SNAP food benefit payments after Supreme Court pause
The USDA orders states to “undo” steps taken to issue full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits after the Supreme Court temporarily paused a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to fully fund the program.
“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” the agency wrote in a memo Sunday. “Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
Nearly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits each month. Due to the ongoing government shutdown, benefits have not been doled out for nearly a week — the first lapse in the program’s 61-year history.
A district judge Thursday ordered that the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits for the month of November. “People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” the judge said. “This should never happen in America.”
The government then filed an appeal, which the federal appeals court rejected on Friday. President Donald Trump then appealed to the nation’s highest court, which temporarily granted the Trump administration’s request.
Liberal Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signed an order Friday stating “an administrative stay is required to facilitate the First Circuit’s expeditious resolution of the pending stay motion.”
As the legal challenge was playing out in various courts, the USDA issued a notice Friday stating it was “working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance” with the lower court order.
Following the Supreme Court justice’s order, on Sunday, the USDA warned that “failure to comply with this memorandum may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the Federal share of State administrative costs and holding States liable for any over issuances that result from the noncompliance.”
Before the courts intervened, the USDA warned last month that the “well has run dry” and that “there will be no benefits issued November 1.”
Food banks have been swamped over the last month due to the shutdown, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay and now, millions more without access to food assistance benefits.
Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari slammed the latest USDA memo, pointing out that the president attended a lavish dinner party at Mar-a-Lago on Friday which featured a three-course menu of beef filet, truffle dauphinoise, pan-seared scallops and a trio of desserts.
“Trump’s @USDA just told states to “undo” full SNAP benefits—and threatened to punish them if they keep feeding families. They are intentionally starving Americans while Trump plays golf and throws lavish parties for billionaires. It’s unconscionable. And we won’t let it stand,” the Congresswoman wrote on X Sunday.
