Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to pay for SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using emergency reserve funds during the government shutdown.
The judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island gave the administration leeway on whether to fund the program partially or in full for November. That also brings uncertainty about how things will unfold and will delay payments for many beneficiaries whose cards would normally be recharged early in the month.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to freeze payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program starting Nov. 1 because it said it could no longer keep funding it due to the shutdown. The program serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net — and it costs about $8 billion per month nationally.
President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration's lawyers are not sure they have the legal authority to pay federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the government shutdown and said he has asked for clarity from the courts in the wake of two recent decisions.
"Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do," Trump said in a post on his social media platform Friday evening.
"If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay," Trump said, referring to the shifting of funds that has been used to pay troops as the shutdown has stretched on.Trump's post came hours after a federal judge in Rhode Island temporarily ordered the Trump administration to continue SNAP funding.
While food benefits continue to be delayed, California is protecting families from hunger by fast-tracking $80 million in state funds to stabilize food bank food distribution and offset delays in federally funded SNAP/CalFresh benefits.
Governor Newsom has also mobilized the California National Guard and California Volunteers on a humanitarian mission to support food banks and Californians by planning, packing, distributing, and delivering meals to families in need throughout the state — similarly to his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture says it lacks funding to provide SNAP benefits to 40 million Americans, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the federal government has more than $5 billion in contingency funds earmarked for the program. A multi-state lawsuit demands that the federal government use those funds to avoid shutting the program down for the first time since it began in 1964.
“Those funds are sitting there unspent and it is unconscionable, it is immoral, it is illegal,” Bonta said.
According to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Trump Administration claimed that SNAP benefits are not available for November 2025 because SNAP’s “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.” This stands in opposition to the law and prior practice, including by the Trump Administration itself. Also, the Administration could use its legal transfer authority — the same authority it already used to provide additional funds to WIC — to supplement the contingency reserves, which alone are not enough to fund families’ full benefits for November.
Further Reading
SNAP’s Contingency Reserve Is Available forRegular SNAP Benefits, as USDA and OMB HaveRuled in Past - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - 10/27/2025