Updated November 10, 2025 at 12:06 PM CST
The Trump administration has notified the U.S. Supreme Court that it still wants to fight a lower court ruling requiring full SNAP benefits be paid for November. The move comes after an appeals court late Sunday refused another government attempt to deny full funding for the nation's largest anti-hunger program.
The administration's appeal to the high court over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program comes despite new efforts to end the federal shutdown, which would render the issue moot.
At issue is an order from a federal judge in Rhode Island, to increase SNAP payments from the 65% the government says it can afford to 100% of what SNAP recipients are entitled to. In its ruling, the appeals court said the harm from denying millions of people food aid "would be immense," and it repeated the lower court finding that the funding gap could have been avoided.
"The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting," the appeals court said.
The federal judge in Rhode Island, John J. McConnell Jr., had accused the government of delaying payment for "political purposes."
The chaos of moves and counter-moves has left states scrambling and heads spinning, and many SNAP enrollees remain uncertain how much of their benefit to expect for November, and when it will come.
On Friday, after the administration said it would send full payments (even as it appealed the order to do so), a number of states immediately started sending out that money. Around the country, some participants started getting it on the debit-like cards they use to buy groceries. Then the Supreme Court late Friday granted a request to temporarily pause those full payments while the appeals court considered the issue more fully.
Adding to the confusion, Trump administration officials on Saturday directed states to "immediately undo" any actions they have made to fully fund SNAP, and only pay 65%. In a statement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said such payments were "unauthorized," and threatened states that they may end up having to cover those costs themselves, and facing financial penalties.
Rhode Island is one of several states that had already sent full benefits to SNAP recipients before the Supreme Court temporarily halted full payments.
In a statement Sunday, Democratic Gov. Dan McKee railed against President Trump, saying he "intentionally created chaos for states across the country — playing games with people's ability to feed their families, weaponizing hunger, and gaslighting the American people. It's inhumane."
McKee said he was working on contingency options "to protect Rhode Islanders against President Trump's volatility."
At the same time, Rhode Island is among some two dozen states, who sought and obtained temporary protection from federal judge in Massachusetts. A hearing on that issue is set for Monday afternoon.
In court papers, the states said they feared that the federal government "may attempt to recoup funds from the States that the States' residents have used to feed themselves and their families." That could amount to hundreds of million dollars, they said, and would "risk catastrophic operational disruptions for the States, with a consequent cascade of harms for their residents."
Trump administration officials did not respond to requests for comment.
But over the weekend, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins took to X to blame Democrats for the lapse in benefits, and railed against "activist judges" who have ordered "reckless and unconstitutional legal maneuvers" to force funding that Congress didn't appropriate. Speaking to Fox News, Rollins borrowed language from anti-Trump activists.
"It's interesting, the 'No Kings' rally, where they said 'we don't want a King in America,'" Rollins said. "Except now they want a king who can create money out of the clear blue sky."
Meanwhile, SNAP recipients remain in limbo, as do the organizations that serve them.
The Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington, W.V., has tripled the volume of food distributions that are usual this time of year, according to CEO Cynthia Kirkhart. People are struggling, she says, and all the uncertainty has just exacerbated their pain.
"The news comes out that we are going to get SNAP benefits. Then, we aren't going to get SNAP benefits. This is much worse. Folks get their hopes built up and then they crash. It's a lot," Kirkhart sighs. "We can do better."
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