Overview
- A late Wednesday court filing from USDA official Patrick Penn revised November SNAP guidance to provide roughly 65% of typical maximum benefits, up from the earlier 50% estimate.
- USDA says it will exhaust approximately $4.6–$4.7 billion in contingency funds, which is far short of the roughly $8–$9 billion normally required for a full month of benefits.
- States must reprogram eligibility and EBT systems to issue pro‑rated payments, with USDA warning the work could take days, weeks or even months and will produce uneven, delayed rollouts.
- Some states signal earliest disbursements as soon as this weekend or next week, while others cannot provide dates yet and caution that timing may shift as federal guidance evolves.
- After President Trump suggested payments would wait for a shutdown resolution, the White House said the administration is complying with court orders as food banks and local governments mount stopgap aid that cannot match SNAP’s scale.