Volunteers display information about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at a grocery store on Monday, November 3, 2025 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, USA.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Department of Agriculture issued a memo to states late Saturday night threatening fines if states that paid the full monthly SNAP benefit for November “do not cancel” their payments.
The late-night directive from the Trump administration adds to the confusion over the anti-hunger program, which serves more than 42 million Americans.
The memo, signed by Patrick Penn, deputy assistant secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services at the Department of Agriculture, warned states that the government had not fully settled November’s SNAP benefit payments.
“This was unauthorized to the extent that states submitted complete SNAP payment files for November 2025,” according to the memo. State program administrators were instead directed to partially distribute 65% of that month’s SNAP benefits, according to the memo.
The memo also says states must “immediately rescind actions taken to issue full SNAP benefits in November 2025.” Failure to comply could result in the Department of Agriculture revoking federal contributions to administrative costs or making states financially responsible for “overissuance resulting from noncompliance.”
It is unclear how USDA expects states to recover fraudulent SNAP payments.
The Department of Agriculture and the White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
The USDA memo was first reported by the New York Times.
The memo was released as some states scrambled to comply with a court ruling Thursday in which a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to pay all of November’s SNAP benefits by Friday. The court rejected the administration’s plan to partially fund the food stamp program amid the U.S. government shutdown.
The USDA then told states it would begin disbursing full SNAP benefits to comply with that order, even though the ruling faced an appeal from the Trump administration.
The Associated Press reported late Friday that more than six states “confirmed on Friday that some SNAP recipients had already received their November payments.”
But that order was blocked by the Supreme Court on Friday, paving the way for the Trump administration and plaintiffs to challenge the ruling.
The Trump administration previously said it would not use emergency funds, including $4.65 billion, 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, currently has no allocated funding because Congress failed to pass a spending bill. This failure led to the U.S. government shutdown on October 1st.
Past administrations have continued to pay SNAP benefits during previous government shutdowns.
