US Supreme Court lets Trump withhold $4 billion in food aid funding for now

The US Supreme Court yesterday (7 November) allowed President Donald Trump's administration to withhold for now about $4 billion needed to fully fund a food aid program for 42 million low-income Americans this month amid the federal government shutdown.

The court's action, known as an administrative stay, gives a lower court additional time to consider the administration's formal request to only partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, for November. The administration had faced a judge-ordered deadline to fully fund the program.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who issued the stay, set it to expire two days after the Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the administration's request to halt the order that it promptly pay the full amount of this month's SNAP program, which costs around $8.5 billion to $9 billion per month.

The ruling by US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, on Thursday came after the administration said it would provide $4.65 billion in emergency funding to partially cover SNAP benefits for November.

Government warns of 'further shutdown chaos'

Department of Justice lawyers said in a Supreme Court filing that McConnell's ruling, if allowed to stand, would "sow further shutdown chaos" by prompting "a run on the bank by way of judicial fiat."

McConnell last week ordered the USDA to use emergency SNAP funding to cover part of this month's cost. In Thursday's ruling, he ordered the USDA to make up for the shortfall with money from a separate department program with $23.35 billion in funding, derived from tariffs, that supports child nutrition.

McConnell, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, accused the Republican Trump administration of withholding SNAP benefits for "political reasons."

That ruling had handed a win to a coalition of legal challengers comprising cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward, and prompted the administration to ask the 1st Circuit on Friday to halt the order.

The plaintiffs told the 1st Circuit in court papers that the administration showed disregard for the harm that would befall nearly one in eight Americans if McConnell's decision were paused and SNAP recipients were denied full benefits.

"The court should deny Defendants' motion and not allow them to further delay getting vital food assistance to individuals and families who need it now," the lawyers wrote.

The 1st Circuit yesterday denied the Trump administration's request to administratively stay McConnell's ruling. It has yet to issue a ruling on the administration's formal request to halt the judge's order but indicated it sought to do so quickly.

States begin to issue aid

The USDA yesterday informed states it would be making funds available to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration filed court papers seeking to block McConnell's ruling, causing confusion.

After receiving the USDA memo, states including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts said they had directed state agencies to issue SNAP benefits in full for November.

"President Trump should never have put the American people in this position," Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.

SNAP benefits lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the program's 60-year history. Recipients have turned to already-strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.

SNAP benefits are paid monthly to eligible Americans whose income is less than 130% of the federal poverty line. The maximum monthly benefit for the 2026 fiscal year is $298 for a one-person household and $546 for a two-person household.