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Officials from several states said Sunday they were unsure how the Trump administration’s latest guidance would affect SNAP, a program that serves one in eight low-income Americans. The program has already faced significant difficulties in recent days, as President Trump and his top advisers have refused to fully fund payments to recipients while the government remains closed.
Some of the 42 million people enrolled in SNAP began receiving their full benefits on Friday, after a federal court ruling ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the program this month amid the shutdown. States including New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin quickly released aid to residents, some of whom remained without food assistance for several days.
However, shortly after, the Supreme Court temporarily put the judge’s order on hold until the Court of Appeals could consider it further, leaving the entire program in a legal limbo. That analysis is still ongoing, and the outcome could determine whether the government will have to draw from its vast reserves — totaling tens of billions of dollars — to maintain full SNAP benefits this month.
The Agriculture Department and the White House Budget Office did not respond to requests for comment on the situation.
Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said in a statement that she believes the Trump administration is “demanding that food aid be withdrawn from families who have already received it.”
“They would rather go door to door, taking food from people, than do the right thing and fully fund SNAP in November so veterans, seniors and children who are struggling can get food on the table,” she said.
The food stamp program is funded by the federal government but largely administered by the states. To provide benefits, states send files to processors who administer the Electronic Benefits Transfer system, known as EBT. These providers save money on EBT cards, which are the main way SNAP recipients buy groceries.
States cannot submit the necessary files for EBT processors to provide full benefits, the Agriculture Department said in its guidance late Saturday. Instead, the agency said states only have to file for “partial” benefits, meaning food stamp recipients would have their payments significantly reduced.
Written by Patrick A. “To the extent that states submitted complete SNAP payment filings for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” said Penn, a senior Agriculture Department official. “Therefore, states should immediately reverse any steps taken to release full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
David A. said: Soper, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said it would not be “legal” for the government to take back benefits already granted without ensuring people due process.
Soper added that the federal government sought to prevent states from completing the work on fully releasing SNAP benefits to low-income families. He said the memorandum could serve to “scare countries that are in the middle of the process and demand that they back down.”
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Officials in at least one state, Wisconsin, publicly refused Sunday to comply with the Trump administration’s new directives, citing the financial harm it would cause residents. “No,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. He said his state will continue to fight the Trump administration’s “efforts to strip food assistance from children, families and seniors in Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin officials also criticized the federal government for trying to obstruct some of the complex and bureaucratic transactions that help reimburse grocery stores that accept SNAP. They brought the incident to the attention of a federal judge in Massachusetts, who is reviewing a request from about two dozen states, including Wisconsin, to force the Trump administration to claw back all SNAP funds.
As part of the lawsuit, state leaders also asked a judge on Saturday to protect them from any federal penalty over how they handle food benefits during the current period of legal uncertainty. In the petition, they pointed to a series of conflicting instructions from the Department of Agriculture, which at one point indicated it was preparing to release funds for the full payment of food stamps.
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Justice Department lawyers strongly opposed the states’ request in a formal response filed with the court on Saturday. The petition came as the Trump administration also stepped up its threats to punish local officials for allocating full food stamp payments.
States could lose access to some federal funds to administer SNAP if they fail to comply, and could be held liable for funding the full benefits not authorized by the federal government, the Agriculture Department said in its memo.
“Cruelty is the goal,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who leads her party on the top House Agriculture Committee. “It is their choice to do so,” she added in a social media post.
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