The Trump administration said in a court filing that it will partially fund SNAP following two separate judges’ rulings that the program is to continue running amid the ongoing government shutdown.
In a court filing, officials wrote that the “U.S. Department of Agriculture is complying with the Court’s order and will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today by generating the table required for States to calculate the benefits available for each eligible household in that State.”
The department will “therefore have made the necessary funds available and have authorized the States to begin disbursements once the table is issued,” the document notes.
In a separate filing, a Department of Agriculture official wrote, “Per orders issued by the United States District Courts for the Districts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, FNS [Food and Nutrition Service] intends to deplete SNAP contingency funds completely and provide reduced SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
“In addition to adjusting eligibility and benefit issuance files to accommodate the reduction, States must notify all SNAP households of the reduction, as well as handle any requests for fair hearings from SNAP households related to the reduction,” the official added.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani wrote that a contingency fund is “available to USDA and must be deployed to fund SNAP benefits.”
Similarly, U.S. District Judge John McConnell ruled that the “use of those contingency funds has now become required because available funding is necessary to carry out the program operations, i.e., to pay citizens their SNAP benefits.”
