US Agriculture Department directs states to undo full food assistance benefits for November

The US Agriculture Department directed states Sunday to "immediately" reverse any steps taken to issue full food assistance benefits for November, saying such payments were "unauthorized."

In a memorandum updating guidance on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefit issuance, Deputy Under Secretary Patrick A. Penn told states they must undo full benefit payments and instead continue processing partial issuances.

"States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025," Penn wrote in the memo.

The directive comes after the Supreme Court granted the agency an administrative stay on orders from a Rhode Island federal court, which ordered full benefit issuance.

Penn warned that noncompliance "may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the Federal share of State administrative costs and holding States liable for any overissuances."

The memo specifies that states must continue to process and load partial issuances and not transmit full benefit files to processors.

The memo came amid chaos and confusion that erupted during the ongoing-and longest-federal government shutdown in US history, when Trump threatened to withhold SNAP benefits, saying that the government's $5 billion contingency fund cannot be used during the government closure.

The Trump administration then agreed to pay partial SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, until the shutdown ended but said that those payments could take weeks to be delivered.

The government said it would use $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover about 65% of eligible households' benefits but declined to use additional funding set aside for child nutrition programs.