Trump administration to partially fund SNAP food benefits amid US shutdown

After two judges ordered the program to continue despite a lingering government shutdown, the US government will partially fund food benefits for low-income Americans, according to US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on October 10 that it would not be able to fund the program if the shutdown lasted, so the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s flagship food aid program, was scheduled to end on November 1. It serves one in eight Americans each month.

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The federal government was instructed to use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in separate but identical rulings issued by federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Friday.

The monthly deployment of SNAP, or SNAP, covers roughly $190 or $356 worth of groceries per household. It costs more than $8 billion to implement. Debit cards typically have the benefits loaded on them.

The USDA agreed to “fulfill its obligation to use the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today” in a filing on Monday to the Rhode Island court.

According to the filing, the administration will only use about $5 billion in funds that would enable it to fully fund SNAP.

It’s unclear when beneficiaries may begin receiving funds again or how much money will ultimately be included because the card loading process can take up to two weeks.

The judges had until Monday to decide how to partially fund SNAP, with Boston-based US District Judge Indira Talwani ruling that the program’s suspension was “unlawful” and “erroneous.”

She continued, “This court has now made it clear that defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary to support the SNAP program.”

US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island reached a similar conclusion and asked the administration for a report on Monday, stating in a virtual hearing that “irreparable harm will begin to occur” if SNAP is paused.

The Trump administration’s benefit suspension was subject to various legal challenges.

Trump used the potential loss of SNAP to challenge “Radical Democrats,” as he had previously claimed on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

In recent days, right-wing disinformation about food stamps has also been reported online, with one viral chart claiming that people from “Afghanistan,” “Somali,” and “Iraqi” were the main beneficiaries of SNAP.