Overview
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s administrative stay keeps a district court order for full November SNAP payments on hold as the administration presses the Supreme Court to allow only partial funding.
- A late Saturday USDA memo signed by Deputy Under Secretary Patrick Penn directed states to "immediately undo" full issuances and limit November payments to about 65%, threatening financial penalties for noncompliance.
- The directive reversed earlier USDA guidance that said it was working to implement full payments, deepening confusion for state agencies and EBT systems already processing files.
- Several states had already loaded full benefits — Rhode Island reported payments to roughly 79,000 households and Michigan ordered full issuances — and a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked USDA from clawing back funds or punishing states.
- The 1st Circuit refused to stay the full-payment order, citing harms to the program’s 42 million recipients, while congressional negotiations on a funding bill could reopen the government and render the court fight moot.