Trump admin agrees to fund some SNAP benefits amid shutdown
An EBT sign is seen in the window of a grocery store in the Flatbush neighborhood of New York City’s Brooklyn borough on October 30, 2025.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The Trump administration told a federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday that it will tap billions of dollars in emergency funds to pay at least some of SNAP benefits during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
The administration told Judge Jack McConnell: application to court He rejected his proposed option of making all November payments for SNAP benefits with money from the Child Nutrition Program and other unspecified funds.
SNAP provides food stamps to approximately 42 million Americans.
On Friday, McConnell ruled that the Trump administration cannot stop paying SNAP benefits.
Before McConnell’s order, the administration had rejected the idea of using emergency funds appropriated by Congress to fund the food stamp program in the event of a shutdown.
In a written order Sunday, McConnell presented the USDA with two options.
One option was to pay the full SNAP benefits for November by the end of Monday using Section 32 Child Nutrition Program funds and other unspecified funds.
The other option is to “make a partial payment of the total amount of the emergency fund and … quickly resolve the administrative and clerical burdens described in the documents, but in no case will partial payments be made after Wednesday.”
Choosing the second option in its filing on Monday, the administration said USDA would “fulfill its obligation to spend all SNAP emergency funds today by establishing the table required for States to calculate available benefits for each eligible household in that State.”
USDA authorized states to begin distributing aid once the table was published.
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