Politics
NEW: Supreme Court Blocks Order Requiring Trump Admin To Fully Fund SNAP During Shutdown
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court’s order requiring the Trump administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps, while the ongoing government shutdown continues.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell rejected the administration’s effort to only partially fund the benefits program for roughly 42 million recipients through November as the shutdown drags on. “People have gone without for too long,” McConnell said during the hearing.
A federal appeals court on Friday then blocked a Trump Administration request to block the lower court’s order. After that ruling, the administration then filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court late Friday.
“Given the imminent, irreparable harms posed by these orders, which require the government to transfer an estimated $4 billion by tonight, the Solicitor General respectfully requests an immediate administrative stay of the orders pending the resolution of this application by no later than 9:30pm this evening,” an administration spokesperson familiar with the filing told Fox News.
The Supreme Court order comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was working to comply with the lower court’s ruling to fully fund SNAP through November.
In a letter sent to all regional directors of the SNAP program on Friday, Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, said, “FNS is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District Court of Rhode Island.”
He added, “Later today, FNS will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor.”
Penn added that the department was working to keep regional directors “as up to date as possible on any future developments and appreciate your continued partnership to serve program beneficiaries across the country. State agencies with questions should contact their FNS Regional Office representative.”
Judge McConnell, an Obama appointee, had scolded the Trump Administration for failing to comply with an order he issued last week that called for SNAP before its funding was set to lapse on November 1. As a result of Democrat-led efforts to extend the shutdown for political gain, the deadline marked the first time that program had lapsed in the program’s decades-long history.
The judge also claimed that Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states. He then ordered the USDA top tap other contingency funds as necessary.
Trump administration officials said in a court filing earlier this week that they would pay just 65% of the roughly $9 billion owed to fund the SNAP program for November, prompting the judge to update his order and give the administration just 24 hours to comply.
