Overview
- A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the administration to fully fund November SNAP by Friday, rejecting a plan that covered only up to 65 percent of maximum benefits.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued a temporary stay of the full-payment mandate while the First Circuit considers the administration’s emergency request.
- USDA guidance now targets a 35 percent cut to maximum allotments, citing roughly $8–9 billion needed for November against about $4.6–5 billion available in contingency funds.
- Several states reported that some households received full payments before the stay, including California, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Oregon, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, while others moved ahead with partial disbursements or waited for federal instructions.
- The Trump administration appealed on separation‑of‑powers grounds as food banks saw rising demand and some states, such as Connecticut and Delaware, deployed their own dollars to bridge gaps for the roughly 41–42 million SNAP recipients.