Trump Gives Half a Loaf to Hungry SNAP Recipients

The current federal government shutdown will become the longest in history tomorrow if a miracle resolution doesn’t appear. But aside from the federal employees who have been furloughed (or worse yet, have been forced to work without pay) since October 1, the most visible consequences began this past weekend, when federal funding for the SNAP (a.k.a. food stamps) program lapsed, potentially affecting the 42 million Americans who rely on this benefit for their daily bread. The Trump administration has claimed it has no legal way to replace any of the lapsed funds, despite the existence of a $6 billion congressionally authorized emergency fund devised for just this purpose.

On Friday two different federal district judges (in Massachusetts and in Rhode Island) ordered the administration to tap the emergency fund to at least partially restore SNAP benefits as soon as possible. But both judges made it clear the government has additional resources to fully fund benefits (much like it used tariff revenue to ensure no interruption in military pay) and avoid the complications and interruptions a partial payment would involve, and gave the administration a November 3 deadline to choose a path forward or to appeal the orders.

Today the Justice Department (representing USDA, which administers the SNAP program) indicated the administration would not appeal the orders but would also decline to provide for full SNAP payments, instead making the partial payments the judges required. This will create a very chaotic situation, the Associated Press noted:

The administration said it would provide details to states on Monday on calculating the per-household partial benefit. The process of loading the SNAP cards, which involves steps by state and federal government agencies and vendors, can take up to two weeks in some states. But the USDA warned in a court filing that it could take weeks or even months for states to make all the system changes to send out reduced benefits. The average monthly benefit is usually about $190 per person.

States were all over the map in responding to the potential funding gap even before greater uncertainty was introduced by the partial funding decision, as the Hill reported:

[Some] States and territories including California, the District of Columbia, Louisiana, New York and West Virginia have deployed emergency funds to food banks and SNAP beneficiaries ahead of the anticipated halt in benefits … Food banks across the country have been preparing for an influx of people, with many already seeing increased traffic ahead of the November deadline. Governors were directing funds straight to food banks ahead of the anticipated lapse. 

The politics of the funding lapse and its partial resolution are also hard to immediately assess. Some Republicans have been loathe to restore SNAP benefits because the lapse might encourage Democrats to consider reopening the government on the GOP’s terms. But it’s not quite so simple, as the New York Times observes:

Among the 50 congressional districts with the highest SNAP participation rates, 43 are represented by Democrats …

But food assistance has a far broader and more bipartisan reach than, say, blue-state infrastructure projects that the administration has canceled during the shutdown. Other parts of the country that are also heavily reliant on SNAP supported Mr. Trump in the 2024 election, including much of Appalachia, predominantly Hispanic Texas border counties that swung to the right last year, and rural counties across the South and West.

The hostility to SNAP that the GOP exhibited in the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will also color public reactions to this mess, suggests the Times:

The administration’s move to halt SNAP during the shutdown comes after Republicans passed steep cuts to the program in their major domestic policy bill over the summer. Arguing that food assistance was riddled with waste and fraud, Republicans expanded work requirements and shifted more of the expense of the program onto states. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the changes will push states to reduce or eliminate benefits, with 2.4 million people falling out of the program because of the work requirements alone.

That the administration is choosing to fund SNAP partially rather than fully at this point could increase the political peril for Trump and his party. Even as he seeks to blame the whole situation on Democrats, Trump is grudgingly making available only half a loaf of the relief two federal judges told him that he could legally provide. It’s a churlish position to place himself in, and it could weaken rather than strengthen the Republican resolve to “win” the shutdown fight.