A Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) sign at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge on Thursday rejected the administration’s plan to partially fund the food stamp program for 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown and ordered them to pay out November’s SNAP benefits in full by Friday.
“People have been without money for far too long,” Judge Jack McConnell said during a hearing in Rhode Island District Court earlier this week when he issued an order requiring the government to tap into sources it deemed off-limits.
McConnell said that if SNAP is not adequately funded, “evidence shows that people go hungry, food pantries are overburdened and unnecessary suffering occurs.”
“This represents irreparable harm here. Last weekend, for the first time in our nation’s history, SNAP benefits expired,” the judge said. “This is an issue that could and should have been avoided.”
The order came after plaintiffs in the lawsuit asked him to reject the government’s partial benefits offer.
The Trump administration announced last week that it would not use emergency funds, including $4.65 billion authorized by Congress, to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. The total cost of full SNAP benefits for the same month would be approximately $8 billion.
The program, like other federal programs, is currently unfunded because Congress has not approved a stopgap funding bill to help restart the U.S. government. Past presidential administrations have continued to pay SNAP benefits during previous government shutdowns.
City groups, philanthropic and faith-based nonprofits, labor unions, and business groups have sued the Trump administration, seeking to force it to fund SNAP with reserve funds and possibly other funds.
McConnell blocked the administration from suspending SNAP benefits in a court hearing last Friday. He called on the administration to disburse benefits from the emergency fund “as soon as possible” and explore whether other funds could be used to fully cover the program for the month.
On Monday, the administration told McConnell it would use emergency funds to pay 50% of the benefits, but ruled out using at least $4 billion from the Child Nutrition Program and other sources.
On Wednesday night, the administration updated the plan, announcing that 65% of benefits would be paid.
At Thursday’s hearing, McConnell denounced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision not to use so-called Section 32 funds to pay for the full amount of November’s SNAP payments as “arbitrary and capricious.”
“The Department of Agriculture had an obligation to prepare emergency funds from the beginning of the shutdown on October 1st to ensure that recipients received their benefits on November 1st, as scheduled,” McConnell said.
“The Department of Agriculture did not do so. Even when November 1 came, the Department of Agriculture refused to use the emergency funds mandated by Congress. Now the Department of Agriculture cannot scream that states will not be able to pay beneficiaries in a timely manner for weeks or months because they are not prepared to make partial payments.”
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