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Volunteers prepare food packages at a distribution event sponsored by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and volunteers at the Apostolic Church of Jesus on October 31, 2025 in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
(Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Trump USDA to Release November SNAP Funds While Appealing Order to Supreme Court
"This administration thought they would use hunger as a tool for political leverage. Instead, they just caved to public pressure," said one House Democrat.
Nov 07, 2025
The "Republican bid to starve people to avoid lowering healthcare costs goes up in flames," one progressive podcaster said Friday after the Trump administration told states that it would fully fund this month's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 42 million low-income Americans to comply with a court order that it is challenging.
As the longest government shutdown in US history—a result of congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts—dragged on Friday, the administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit Court to block District Judge John McConnell's ruling that it must release $8 billion for SNAP payments.
McConnell, appointed to the District of Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, had concluded Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture's plan to partially fund SNAP this month did not comply with his previous order, issued a week ago in a case brought by municipalities, nonprofits, and labor groups.
Despite the appeal, Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in Friday guidance to state agencies that the department "is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances" in compliance with McConnell's order and "will complete the processes necessary to make funds available" later in the day.
Before the guidance was published on the USDA website, it was obtained by journalists, including Jacob Fischler of States Newsroom. As he reported Friday, a US Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration must comply with the judge's order until and unless it is granted relief by a higher court, which the 1st Circuit hadn't offered.
On Friday evening, the appellate court officially denied the Justice Department's request to block McConnell's order. US Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly announced that "we have filed an emergency stay application in the Supreme Court requesting immediate relief."
Responding to the 1st Circuit rejection in a statement, Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose group represents the plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case, said that "the Trump-Vance administration continues to attempt—over and over—to take food out of the hands of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear: They cannot."
"American families should not be used as political props in a shutdown that this White House manufactured," Perryman added. "Even as the administration attempts—again—through an appeal to the Supreme Court to deprive people of nutrition, we will continue to meet them with effective legal action and secure benefits for the American people."
Critics of the administration's refusal to willingly use a contingency fund created by Congress and move around other money to fully fund SNAP during the shutdown welcomed the USDA's Friday guidance while also calling out President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers.
"This is the right decision morally and legally, but it's absurd it was even a fight to begin with," said Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), a gubernatorial candidate, in response to Fischler's social media post featuring the guidance.
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes—who joined other AGs in filing another SNAP suit in Massachusetts—stressed Friday that "all of this could have been avoided if Trump had followed the law and funded SNAP benefits from the start."
"I'm proud to have sued to ensure Arizonans have access to food," she added. "And I'll keep suing the Trump administration whenever they try to hurt our state and its residents."
Meanwhile, in Congress, lawmakers showed no sign of reaching an agreement to reopen the government on Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) swiftly rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) offer to vote on ending the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, calling it a "nonstarter."
This article has been updated with comment from Democracy Forward.
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donald trumpgovernment shutdownhungerus department of agriculturesupplemental nutrition assistance program
The "Republican bid to starve people to avoid lowering healthcare costs goes up in flames," one progressive podcaster said Friday after the Trump administration told states that it would fully fund this month's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 42 million low-income Americans to comply with a court order that it is challenging.
As the longest government shutdown in US history—a result of congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts—dragged on Friday, the administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit Court to block District Judge John McConnell's ruling that it must release $8 billion for SNAP payments.
McConnell, appointed to the District of Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, had concluded Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture's plan to partially fund SNAP this month did not comply with his previous order, issued a week ago in a case brought by municipalities, nonprofits, and labor groups.
Despite the appeal, Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in Friday guidance to state agencies that the department "is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances" in compliance with McConnell's order and "will complete the processes necessary to make funds available" later in the day.
Before the guidance was published on the USDA website, it was obtained by journalists, including Jacob Fischler of States Newsroom. As he reported Friday, a US Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration must comply with the judge's order until and unless it is granted relief by a higher court, which the 1st Circuit hadn't offered.
On Friday evening, the appellate court officially denied the Justice Department's request to block McConnell's order. US Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly announced that "we have filed an emergency stay application in the Supreme Court requesting immediate relief."
Responding to the 1st Circuit rejection in a statement, Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose group represents the plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case, said that "the Trump-Vance administration continues to attempt—over and over—to take food out of the hands of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear: They cannot."
"American families should not be used as political props in a shutdown that this White House manufactured," Perryman added. "Even as the administration attempts—again—through an appeal to the Supreme Court to deprive people of nutrition, we will continue to meet them with effective legal action and secure benefits for the American people."
Critics of the administration's refusal to willingly use a contingency fund created by Congress and move around other money to fully fund SNAP during the shutdown welcomed the USDA's Friday guidance while also calling out President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers.
"This is the right decision morally and legally, but it's absurd it was even a fight to begin with," said Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), a gubernatorial candidate, in response to Fischler's social media post featuring the guidance.
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes—who joined other AGs in filing another SNAP suit in Massachusetts—stressed Friday that "all of this could have been avoided if Trump had followed the law and funded SNAP benefits from the start."
"I'm proud to have sued to ensure Arizonans have access to food," she added. "And I'll keep suing the Trump administration whenever they try to hurt our state and its residents."
Meanwhile, in Congress, lawmakers showed no sign of reaching an agreement to reopen the government on Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) swiftly rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) offer to vote on ending the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, calling it a "nonstarter."
This article has been updated with comment from Democracy Forward.
The "Republican bid to starve people to avoid lowering healthcare costs goes up in flames," one progressive podcaster said Friday after the Trump administration told states that it would fully fund this month's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for 42 million low-income Americans to comply with a court order that it is challenging.
As the longest government shutdown in US history—a result of congressional Republicans' refusal to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts—dragged on Friday, the administration asked the US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit Court to block District Judge John McConnell's ruling that it must release $8 billion for SNAP payments.
McConnell, appointed to the District of Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, had concluded Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture's plan to partially fund SNAP this month did not comply with his previous order, issued a week ago in a case brought by municipalities, nonprofits, and labor groups.
Despite the appeal, Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary of food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in Friday guidance to state agencies that the department "is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances" in compliance with McConnell's order and "will complete the processes necessary to make funds available" later in the day.
Before the guidance was published on the USDA website, it was obtained by journalists, including Jacob Fischler of States Newsroom. As he reported Friday, a US Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration must comply with the judge's order until and unless it is granted relief by a higher court, which the 1st Circuit hadn't offered.
On Friday evening, the appellate court officially denied the Justice Department's request to block McConnell's order. US Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly announced that "we have filed an emergency stay application in the Supreme Court requesting immediate relief."
Responding to the 1st Circuit rejection in a statement, Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose group represents the plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case, said that "the Trump-Vance administration continues to attempt—over and over—to take food out of the hands of families, seniors, workers, and children. And every time they tried, the courts told them what the law already makes clear: They cannot."
"American families should not be used as political props in a shutdown that this White House manufactured," Perryman added. "Even as the administration attempts—again—through an appeal to the Supreme Court to deprive people of nutrition, we will continue to meet them with effective legal action and secure benefits for the American people."
Critics of the administration's refusal to willingly use a contingency fund created by Congress and move around other money to fully fund SNAP during the shutdown welcomed the USDA's Friday guidance while also calling out President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers.
"This is the right decision morally and legally, but it's absurd it was even a fight to begin with," said Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-97), a gubernatorial candidate, in response to Fischler's social media post featuring the guidance.
Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes—who joined other AGs in filing another SNAP suit in Massachusetts—stressed Friday that "all of this could have been avoided if Trump had followed the law and funded SNAP benefits from the start."
"I'm proud to have sued to ensure Arizonans have access to food," she added. "And I'll keep suing the Trump administration whenever they try to hurt our state and its residents."
Meanwhile, in Congress, lawmakers showed no sign of reaching an agreement to reopen the government on Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) swiftly rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) offer to vote on ending the shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of expiring health insurance subsidies, calling it a "nonstarter."
This article has been updated with comment from Democracy Forward.
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