USDA Tells States It’s Working to Pay Full SNAP Benefits, as Trump DOJ Appeals Ruling

The Department of Justice filed an appeal on Friday to a judge’s order that the administration pay full November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for approximately 42 million Americans.

“The district court’s order replaces the agency’s prudent choice in this situation—a temporary reduction in November SNAP benefits—with a significantly more tumultuous one with long-term consequences into next year,” the Friday filing states.

Despite the appeal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture notified state agency directors on Friday that its Food and Nutrition Service, which administers SNAP, “is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District of Rhode Island,” according to a letter provided by a state health official and reviewed by NOTUS.

USDA’s letter also stated that later Friday, the agency would take all the steps necessary to make funds available and ensure “subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor.”

The administration’s appeal follows a week of back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the federal courts over whether SNAP payments should go out during the government shutdown.

USDA said it could not distribute emergency funds to pay for benefits in November in a timely manner — although past administrations have done so — delaying or even preventing crucial aid to go out to U.S. households.

A week ago, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. ordered the USDA to make partial payments and use all contingency funds available to partially fund November SNAP benefits.

McConnell found that the Trump administration failed to comply and said they must fully fund the program for the month. He wrote in an order on Thursday that USDA’s actions had “arbitrarily and capriciously created this problem by ignoring the congressional mandate for contingency funds and failing to notify the states.”

In its appeal, the administration said McConnell’s order would jeopardize programs within the agency and would make it impossible to even partially fund them, should they be required to also cover the programs in December.

“There is no basis in law for the district court’s extraordinary injunction that directs an agency to deplete one program to fund another despite the lack of congressionally appropriated funds for the latter,” the appeal reads.

This story has been updated with reporting about a letter from USDA to state agency directors.