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hunger
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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'As Ugly and Cruel As It Gets': Trump Fights Order to Fully Fund November SNAP Benefits
"Families have already suffered enough, going nearly a week without SNAP," said one campaigner. "They don't deserve all of this whiplash from Republicans over the food they need to survive."
Nov 06, 2025
A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to release full funding for 42 million Americans' Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by Friday, but the US Department of Justice swiftly filed an appeal.
"I have never seen an American president so desperate to force children and seniors to go hungry," said Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "Donald Trump is appealing a federal court's order requiring him to pay the full SNAP benefits for this month. This is as ugly and cruel as it gets."
Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal similarly slammed the administration, saying: "Families have already suffered enough, going nearly a week without SNAP. They don't deserve all of this whiplash from Republicans over the food they need to survive."
"Republicans have caused the longest-ever government shutdown by refusing to permanently extend cost-saving healthcare tax credits that millions of Americans rely on to afford health coverage," Tal said. "Now, they are fighting tooth and nail to avoid fully funding SNAP and feeding hungry families and children. Who does that? We need Republicans in Congress to restore full SNAP benefits now, save Americans' healthcare, and end the government shutdown."
Judge John McConnell, appointed to the District of Rhode Island by former President Barack Obama, previously gave the US Department of Agriculture a choice between making a partial payment by emptying a contingency fund or fully covering food stamps with that funding plus money from other sources. The USDA opted for the former, and warned that it could take weeks to get reduced SNAP benefits to recipients, millions of whom would lose the monthly food aid altogether.
Then, on Tuesday, Trump suggested that the administration would not disperse SNAP benefits until congressional Democrats voted to end what has become the longest government shutdown in US history. Although White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later claimed that "the administration is fully complying with the court order" and "the president is referring to future SNAP payments."
That same day, lawyers for the municipalities, nonprofits, and labor groups behind the lawsuit that led to McConnell's initial ruling—one of two SNAP cases currently in the federal court system—filed an emergency request seeking further relief.
On Thursday, McConnell concluded that the USDA's plan ran afoul of his previous directive and issued the new oral ruling. He reportedly said: "Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation's history. This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided."
"The defendants failed to consider the practical consequences associated with this decision to only partially fund SNAP," the judge declared. "They knew that there would be a long delay in paying partial SNAP payments and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer."
Despite the White House's attempted clarification, McConnell also said that Trump's post "stated his intent to defy the court order."
Before the appeal, the new order was widely celebrated, including by Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose group is representing the plaintiffs with the Lawyers' Committee for Rhode Island. She said in a statement that "today is a major victory for 42 million people in America."
"The court could not be more clear—the Trump-Vance administration must stop playing politics with people's lives by delaying SNAP payments they are obligated to issue," Perryman continued. "This immoral and unlawful decision by the administration has shamefully delayed SNAP payments, taking food off the table of hungry families."
"We shouldn't have to force the president to care for his citizens, but we will do whatever is necessary to protect people and communities," she added. "We are honored to represent our brave clients and to have secured this major victory for those who deserve better than what this administration has done to them."
US House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig (D-Minn.) also welcomed the order, while ripping Trump and his secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins. The congresswoman stressed: "As we've said from the beginning, the Trump administration has the money and the power to fully fund SNAP in November. They chose to ignore the harm caused by their actions and cut benefits instead."
"President Trump and USDA need to do the right thing and comply with the court ruling rather than further delay food assistance from reaching 42 million Americans in need," she argued. "It is truly shocking and demoralizing just how far President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have gone to take food out of the mouths of American children, seniors, working parents, veterans, and people with disabilities."
This article was updated after the US Department of Justice appealed Judge John McConnell's latest ruling.
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SNAP Beneficiaries ‘Dumbfounded by the Cruelty’ of Trump Holding Crucial Food Program Hostage
"If I have money left over, then I will eat."
Nov 04, 2025
Beneficiaries of federal food aid are expressing anger and bewilderment at the Trump administration's efforts to use the program as a hostage to end the current shutdown of the federal government.
On Monday, the Trump administration said that it would partially restart funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the wake of two district court rulings mandating that the administration use emergency funds set up by Congress to continue the program.
The administration said that it would only fund around 50% of the $8 billion in total monthly benefits, while also warning that there could be delays before SNAP beneficiaries are able to access the funds.
In interviews with The Guardian, several SNAP beneficiaries fumed that their ability to access food for themselves and their families is being used as a political football by the administration.
Wisconsin resident Betty Standridge, who had been relying on SNAP to afford food after being hospitalized, told The Guardian that, without the funds, "I will not be able to replenish my food for the month, therefore I will do without things like fresh produce, milk, eggs."
Donna Lynn, a disabled veteran who lives in Missouri, also said that she would have to make significant cuts to her budget if SNAP benefits were not replenished.
"It comes down to paying for my medications and my bills or buying food for myself and for my animals," she said. "So I pay for my medications and bills and get what food I can for my animals, and if I have money left over, then I will eat."
A Wisconsin retiree named Sandra, meanwhile, told The Guardian she feared that the administration was angling to permanently end SNAP even after the end of the government shutdown.
"I'm dumbfounded by the cruelty," she said.
Before the administration allowed more than 40 million people—nearly 40% of whom are children—to go without food assistance on November 1 and refused to use a contingency fund to keep SNAP running, the Republican Party passed roughly $186 billion in cuts to the program in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act this summer.
The bill expanded work requirements, shifted some of the cost of SNAP to the states, and restricted benefit increases, leaving millions of people vulnerable to losing their benefits.
Betty Szretter, a New York retiree whose daughter depends on SNAP benefits, told NBC News that she regrets voting for President Donald Trump in 2024, and said she's worried that his focus appears to be elsewhere—like the corporate-funded construction of a ballroom at the White House—rather than on helping people like her family.
“I think deep down he wants to help the country with things like food insecurity,” she said. “But now he is busy out of the country and demolishing the White House. I know that is being paid for with private funds, but those could be used to help people... It all seems very selfish."
CBS News on Tuesday interviewed a Baltimore resident named Kelly Lennox, who has been relying on SNAP for the last year-and-a-half after a car accident that required multiple surgeries left her unable to work. She said the halt of SNAP payments was a particularly harsh blow given that she's deep in medical debt in the wake of the accident.
Now, she says she'll have to rely on local food pantries to keep from going hungry.
"I'm going to have to make use of the pantries and work with their schedule, because if I use actual money for food, it takes away money I need to pay for my residential parking permit, gas, and union dues," she said.
Roughly 42 million people living in the US currently receive SNAP benefits, and The Washington Post estimates that SNAP payments account for 9% of all grocery sales in the US.
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