Trump administration must fully fund food aid benefits by Friday, US judge rules

U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island accused the administration of withholding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP or food stamps, for "political reasons" as he ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the program so people get 100% of their benefits.

"The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur," McConnell said during a virtual court hearing on Thursday. "That's what irreparable harm here means."

The Trump administration quickly moved to appeal McConnell's decision, leaving it unclear whether ultimately SNAP benefits would be paid out in full on Friday as the judge had ordered.

A USDA spokesperson in a statement said Senate Democrats were the ones to blame for compromising SNAP by voting 14 times against a Republican-backed stopgap funding measure that would end the government shutdown, which is now in its 37th day.

"It's an absurd ruling, because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown, which, what we'd like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government of course, then we can fund SNAP," Vice President J.D. Vance said at the White House.

SNAP benefits are paid out monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line. States handle the day-to-day administration of the benefits. The maximum monthly benefit for the 2026 fiscal year had been set at US$298 for a one-person household and US$546 for a two-person one.

The administration had originally planned to entirely suspend SNAP benefits in November, citing a lack of authorized funding from Congress as a result of the government shutdown.

McConnell and another judge in Boston hearing a related case by Democratic-led states last week ruled the administration was required to at least tap US$5.25 billion in emergency funding to partially fund SNAP benefits, which cost US$8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.

USDA SAYS ALLOTMENTS TO BE CUT BY 35%

On Saturday, McConnell gave the Trump administration the option of either using the contingency funding once it resolved the "administrative and clerical burdens" involved in paying reduced benefits or tapping additional funding to fully pay out November's SNAP benefits.

In light of his ruling, the USDA opted on Monday to only use contingency funding, which after subtracting US$600 million for the states' administrative costs in administering SNAP benefits would leave US$4.65 billion to cover benefits.

USDA initially said that maximum allotments would be as a result cut by 50%, but updated is calculations late on Tuesday to say they were being reduced by 35%.

The administration's decision to only partially fund SNAP has fueled uncertainty about how much and when households will receive their monthly food aid, prompting states to encourage SNAP recipients to budget and visit food pantries.

McConnell, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said in going that route, USDA failed to address a known problem and that in some states it could take weeks or months to change antiquated computer systems to process the reduced benefits, which has never been done before.

A group of Democratic-led states in the related case in Boston reported earlier on Thursday that Minnesota had determined it would take at least six weeks to rewrite its computer systems to process the reduced benefits and Pennsylvania would need at least nine to 12 days to restructure its system.

McConnell agreed with lawyers for the cities and non-profits at the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, who had sued over the suspension of SNAP benefits, that USDA had failed to address the administrative burdens that partial benefits entailed and that as a result it needed to tap a US$23.35 billion fund derived from tariffs that has been used for child nutrition programs.

In finding the administration had failed to comply with his earlier order, McConnell pointed to a recent statement Trump had made that SNAP benefits would only be paid when the shutdown ended, which he said reflected the president's "intent to defy the court order."

"Last weekend, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation's history," McConnell said. "This is a problem that could have and should have been avoided."