The Trump administration said it would fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November as it seeks to appeal a district judge’s ruling.
"FNS is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District Court of Rhode Island,” the memo read. "Later today, FNS will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor.
"We will keep you as up to date as possible on any future developments and appreciate your continued partnership to serve program beneficiaries across the country. State agencies with questions should contact their FNS Regional Office representative,” it added.
“People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” McConnell said.
The government appealed the ruling, stating in a new motion that McConnell was making “a mockery of the separation of powers” by ordering USDA to make up for the SNAP shortfall “by transferring billions of dollars that were appropriated for different, equally critical food-security programs—and to do so within just one business day (i.e., by today).”
Still, the federal government said it has made clear that it was working to comply with the court order.
In response to the appeals court’s decision, the Trump administration quickly appealed to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the federal government remains shut down as Democratic senators continue to vote against a continuing resolution proposed by Republicans and set to keep the government funded for several weeks. The government has been shut down since Oct. 1, at which point, Congress would have allocated more funds to the SNAP program.
Of that failure to fund SNAP and the rest of the government, the administration’s new motion argued, “It is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure, and that can only be solved by congressional action.”