On Tuesday, President Donald Trump stated that federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will only be disbursed once the Democrats vote to end the ongoing government shutdown. In a post on Truth Social, Trump emphasized that SNAP benefits will be released only when the "Radical Left Democrats" choose to reopen the government, asserting that they have the power to do so easily.
This statement from Trump follows a report from administration lawyers presented to a federal court in Rhode Island, indicating plans to utilize a contingency fund to issue partial food stamp payments for the month of November. The Justice Department clarified in a court filing that the Department of Agriculture would provide states with essential information for calculating the benefits owed to each eligible household, enabling states to initiate disbursements.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins communicated on X that her agency had dispatched this guidance to states on Tuesday morning. However, she cautioned that the process would be laborious, potentially leading to several weeks of delays in food stamp payments reaching recipients. “If the government opens, families get their FULL benefit much more quickly,” she noted.
As of Tuesday, the government shutdown has entered its 35th day and is poised to become the longest shutdown in U.S. history, surpassing the previous lapse in federal funding during Trump's first term. Currently, over 42 million Americans depend on SNAP to purchase food monthly, with the program funded federally and administered by state agencies.
Despite the critical dependency on SNAP, the Department of Agriculture announced last month that food aid would not be disbursed to recipients on November 1, citing an exhausted fund amid the ongoing government shutdown. This announcement followed Trump's administration's decision not to allocate approximately $5 billion in contingency funds to maintain benefits for those relying on SNAP in November.
A memo from the Department of Agriculture indicated that the reserve funds were not legally accessible for covering regular benefits. In light of the impending cutoff for food benefits, a coalition of 25 states, the District of Columbia, municipalities, and nonprofit organizations filed two lawsuits against the administration, arguing that the decision to halt food stamp payments was illegal. They sought court orders mandating the Department of Agriculture to utilize the contingency fund for this month’s benefits.
In one of the lawsuits, U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the Trump administration to access the contingency fund to address the lapse in SNAP payments caused by the shutdown. The judge, presiding in Rhode Island, required the government to submit a status update regarding the distribution of funds by Monday.
In a subsequent filing with Judge McConnell, the Justice Department confirmed that the Agriculture Department would fulfill its obligation to deplete the full amount of SNAP contingency funds and provide reduced benefits for November 2025. Patrick Penn, an official overseeing SNAP at the Department of Agriculture, revealed that approximately $4.6 billion remains in reserve for November payments, which would cover half of the allotments for eligible households.
However, Penn warned of potential delays in aid distribution due to possible payment errors and significant variances among state eligibility systems needing adjustments for the reduced payments. The ongoing developments underscore the critical intersection of federal funding and public health, particularly in times of governmental strife.
