USDA says it will fully fund SNAP for November after court ruling
In a memo released on Friday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it will comply with a recent court ruling that ordered the Trump administration to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November.
"(Food and Nutrition Service) will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor," Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary of Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services at USDA.
The memo comes the same day President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court to block a judge’s order requiring full SNAP funding during the shutdown.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island had given the administration until today, Friday, Nov. 7, to begin releasing the funds states need to keep the program running.
Officials in California, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin confirmed that some SNAP recipients already have been issued their full November payments.
“Food benefits are now beginning to flow back to California families,” Democratic Gov. said in a statement.
In Wisconsin, more than $104 million of monthly food benefits became available at midnight on electronic cards for about 337,000 households, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said. The state was able to access the federal money so quickly by submitting a request to its electronic benefit card vendor to process the SNAP payments within hours of a Thursday court order to provide full benefits.
Some other states did the same, and yet others said Friday that they were waiting for federal guidance.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
