By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Agriculture directed states to roll back any steps taken to issue full food aid benefits to low-income Americans or risk financial penalties.
The new guidance issued late on Saturday follows the U.S. Supreme Court order on Friday that allowed the Trump administration to continue withholding $4 billion to fully fund the aid for nearly 42 million recipients, pending a lower court ruling.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as food stamps, lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the program’s 60-year history due to the federal government shutdown, which is now in its 40th day.
Hours before the Supreme Court order, the USDA had informed states in a memo that it was working to comply with a federal judge’s order to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration moved to appeal the ruling.
After receiving that Friday memo, several states said they were beginning the process of issuing full benefits.
But those state actions are now unauthorized because of the Supreme Court order, the USDA wrote in guidance released on Saturday. State governments should instead issue only partial benefits, the USDA said.
“States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the memo said.
“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 overissuances that result from the noncompliance,” the memo said.
Some states had previously said they would fund November SNAP benefits using state funds. It was not immediately clear whether the memo applied to actions taken by those states. The USDA did not respond to a request for comment.
Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey were among the states that said on Friday they were moving to issue full benefits to SNAP recipients. None of the states immediately responded to inquiries about how they would respond to the memo.
LEGAL FIGHT
States, cities and nonprofits all sued the administration of President Donald Trump to issue full SNAP benefits after it said in October that the program would lapse on November 1.
Two federal judges ruled on October 31 that the administration needed to at least partially fund the benefits using an agency contingency fund of about $5 billion. SNAP benefits cost about $8 billion to $9 billion per month.
The administration said it would comply with the order, but warned of weeks or months of delay due to technical hurdles.
Cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward argued those actions were inadequate and pressed U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island to order the administration to issue full benefits.
On November 6, McConnell ordered the administration to fully fund November SNAP by the following day, which was quickly appealed by the Department of Justice.
The Supreme Court’s Friday order gave the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals additional time to consider the administration’s formal request to only partially fund the benefits.
As the legal fight plays out, SNAP recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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