A sign at a grocery store on Barlowe Road in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, states that it accepts SNAP benefits. (Photo: Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
This report has been updated.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pay benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, around mid-November, although it could take months for the benefits to reach beneficiaries, the department said Monday in a briefing in federal court in Rhode Island.
AND four-page report of the USDA responded to an order by Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. that President Donald Trump’s administration pay at least some benefits to the 42 million people who will receive aid under the program by the end of Wednesday, despite the government shutdown.
The USDA’s actions do not address what would happen if the closure lasted beyond November.
Top Democrats in Congress have condemned the administration’s decision to pay only a portion of the monthly benefits, saying Trump is deliberately denying food aid to Americans in need. “Providing partial benefits is not enough, is illegal and is especially cruel for Trump as Thanksgiving approaches,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
McConnell on Saturday presented two possibilities for administration: payment of partial benefits by the end of Wednesday through the emergency fund for which about $4.65 billion is currently available, or pay for a full month of benefits by the end of Monday using other reserve sources, such as the Child Nutrition Program.
The USDA has made up its mind exploit the emergency fundgiving the ministry until the end of Wednesday to pay the benefits.
But a statement from Patrick A. Penn, USDA deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said administrative hurdles in calculating and delivering the semimonthly portion of benefits could take “anywhere from several weeks to several months.”
The department complied with McConnell’s order by beginning the process of resuming payments on Monday, according to a status report signed by U.S. Department of Justice officials.
The USDA “will today fulfill its obligation to use the full amount of SNAP emergency funds by generating the table required for states to calculate benefits available to each eligible household in that state,” they said. “Accordingly, USDA will make the necessary funds available and authorize states to begin disbursements once the table is issued.”
Delayed SNAP benefits during shutdown
McConnell’s order acknowledged that it would take the government some time to calculate the reduced benefits and explained why he gave USDA until Wednesday if the department chooses that path.
But Penn said Monday that wasn’t enough time, in part because of obsolete benefits processing systems in some states.
He added that the federal government will provide states with updated benefit tables at the partially funded level by Monday. States will then need to send the updated files to providers processing benefits and add them to beneficiaries’ EBT debit card reminders to spend on groceries.
Monday marked the 34th day of the federal government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 when Congress failed to allocate money for federal programs or pass a stopgap spending bill.
The U.S. Senate was expected to hold another procedural vote on the House-passed GOP stopgap bill, which would provide government funding at fiscal year 2025 levels by Nov. 21.
Democrats voted against the measure in an attempt to force negotiations on expiring tax breaks for people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act platform.
Tuesday’s funding interruption will be tied to the longest shutdown in history, which occurred in 2018-2019.
Dispute over the emergency fund
As overdue as overdue October, the administration warned that it could not pay out SNAP benefits for that month because of the shutdown, saying it was legally prohibited from tapping the emergency fund, which was supposed to be earmarked for natural disasters and similar emergencies.
But two federal ones the judges ruled on October 31 that USDA not only could tap the fund, but was obligated to do so to keep SNAP benefits flowing.
Saturday marked the first benefit interruption in the contemporary history of the program, which dates back to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty program.
Lawmakers, advocates and SNAP experts said program users would see a delay in November benefits as the administration worked to restart it.
The administration’s insistence that it cannot exploit the $6 billion emergency fund originally allocated by Congress was a reversal from USDA’s September 30 plan on how to operate during the shutdown, which specifically calls for using the fund to continue paying benefits.
A month of SNAP benefits costs the federal government approximately $9 billion.
While the USDA did not intend to exploit the contingency fund to cover regular benefits, it spent about $750 million of the original $6 billion on other purposes in October, according to data Monday’s statement to the court by Penn.
The department spent about $450 million on state administrative expenses and $300 million on block grants for Puerto Rico and American Samoa, Penn wrote.
He added that in November, the department would again allocate $450 million in administrative expenses and $150 million in block grants to territories.
That left $4.65 billion available for November benefits, Penn wrote.
Funds are not used for child nutrition
Penn also explained USDA’s decision not to exploit Child Nutrition Program funds to cover SNAP benefit shortfalls.
The administration wanted the fund to be fully stocked, he said.
“Child Nutrition Program funds are not an emergency fund for SNAP,” he said. “Using billions of dollars from Child Nutrition for SNAP would leave an unprecedented funding gap for Child Nutrition that Congress has never had to fill in annual appropriations, and USDA cannot predict what Congress will do in such circumstances.”
The Child Nutrition Program funds school meals, summer meals for children, and summer EBT benefits for low-income families with children. Penn says the school lunch program alone serves about 29 million children a day.
Democrats call USDA plan ‘unacceptable’
Democrats expressed dismay that the administration chose not to fully fund the November benefits.
“Simply paying the bare minimum for partial SNAP funding is not enough and is unacceptable,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote in her letter social media post Monday.
“Trump should take immediate action to fully fund benefits under the law,” added Murray, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the House Appropriations panel, said it was “totally avoidable,” noting that Trump “chose to hold hungry children, seniors and veterans hostage in a selfish and cruel attempt to gain political advantage.”
“Now only partial benefits will be paid late, and families will go hungry while the administration continues to throw lavish parties for its billionaire donors and political allies,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
She added that “we find ourselves in this situation because of a lack of political will on the part of the Trump administration” and called on the USDA to “put politics aside and use the money available to ensure that families do not go hungry.”
Speaker Johnson defends Trump
At Monday’s press conference, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to defend Trump’s handling of SNAP payments.
The president “desperately wants SNAP benefits to go to American citizens who desperately rely on it,” Johnson said.
The Louisiana Republican echoed the words of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Friday complaint this was intended to justify her agency’s refusal to exploit the emergency fund to cover SNAP costs.
“We have always understood it this way: a contingency fund cannot be legally used if the underlying fund has been suspended,” Johnson said.
He blamed Democrats in Congress for voting against the stopgap spending bill and noted that the two judges, McConnell and Indira Talwani in a Massachusetts federal court, who separately ordered the payments to resume were appointed by Democratic former President Barack Obama.
Talwani ruled Friday that the USDA’s plan to withhold SNAP was illegal, but gave the Trump administration until Monday to respond to its findings before deciding on a request to force benefits despite the ongoing government shutdown.
Johnson also acknowledged that the logistics of getting money to states are intricate.
“So it’s not as plain as clicking ‘Send’ on your computer – you have to re-check and recalculate the partial payments to the program’s 42 million recipients,” Johnson said. “That puts a huge burden on the states and the feds to try to solve this problem in a miniature period of time.”
