Overview
- U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. in Rhode Island directed the government to fund SNAP in full for November and required payments to states by Friday, though beneficiaries may not see funds immediately.
- The ruling followed the USDA’s revised plan to issue only 65% of normal benefits after the Department of Justice flagged an error in earlier calculations that pointed to a 50% cut.
- McConnell rebuked the partial-payment plan as arbitrary and capricious, citing harm to roughly 42 million recipients and warning that 16 million children faced immediate risk of hunger.
- The order instructs the government to tap additional USDA dollars, described in coverage as a separate fund such as Section 32, while the White House criticized the decision and President Trump called it “absurd.”
- States, cities and nonprofits are mounting stopgap efforts as distribution logistics catch up, with Chicago coordinating food bank support and companies like DoorDash and Gopuff offering limited vouchers for EBT users.