A Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) sign at a grocery store in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge on Thursday rejected the administration’s plan to partially fund the food stamp program for 42 million Americans during the U.S. government shutdown and ordered them to pay out November’s full SNAP benefits by Friday.
“People have gone without for far too long,” Judge Jack McConnell said during a hearing in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island where he issued the order.
McConnell said the Trump administration had already agreed to tap into a contingency fund authorized by Congress to pay for some SNAP benefits, and would also have to tap into so-called Section 32 funds, which it had refused to tap earlier this week.
McConnell said that if SNAP is not adequately funded, “evidence shows that people go hungry, food pantries are overburdened and unnecessary suffering occurs.”
In his written order, he noted that more than half of the program’s beneficiaries are children, seniors, and veterans.
“While the President of the United States has promised to help the people, his administration’s actions tell a different story,” McConnell wrote.
“When faced with a choice between proceeding with relief and entrenching delays, the government chose the latter, which predictably caused more damage and undermined the very purpose of the programme.”
The order came after plaintiffs in the lawsuit asked him to reject a plan that would pay only a portion of the benefits, which the government unveiled in a court filing in Providence on Monday.
Late Thursday, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to overturn the judge’s new order, as well as an order he issued Friday directing the administration to make partial benefit payments as soon as possible.
During the hearing, McConnell pointed to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump, saying on Tuesday that SNAP benefits will only be given if “radical left Democrats open up the government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
Trump’s post appeared to contradict statements from administration lawyers that some of the benefits would be paid in the same month.
The White House later said there were no changes to the plan, but said it would take time to distribute some benefits to recipients.
McConnell said Trump’s post was effectively an admission that he intended to defy his advance order to explore all sources of funding to fully pay benefits.
The Trump administration announced last week that emergency funds, including $4.65 billion, would not be used to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. The total cost of full SNAP benefits for the same month would be approximately $8 billion.
The program, like other federal programs, currently has no allocated funding because Congress failed to pass a spending bill. As a result of this failure, the US government was shut down on October 1st.
Past presidential administrations have continued to pay SNAP benefits during previous government shutdowns.
City groups, charities and faith-based nonprofits, labor unions, and business associations have sued the government, seeking to force it to fund SNAP with emergency funds and, in some cases, other funds.
In a court hearing last Friday, Mr. McConnell blocked the government from cutting off SNAP benefits, ordered them to be disbursed from an emergency fund “as soon as possible” and to investigate whether other funds could be tapped to fully cover the program for the month.
On Monday, the administration told McConnell it would use emergency funds to pay 50% of the benefits. But it ruled out the use of at least $4 billion from child nutrition programs and other sources.
On Wednesday night, the administration updated the plan, announcing that 65% of benefits would be paid.
During Thursday’s hearing, McConnell criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture for refusing to use nutrition program funds to pay full benefits for November, calling the decision “arbitrary and capricious.”
“The Department of Agriculture had an obligation to prepare emergency funds from the beginning of the shutdown on October 1st to ensure that recipients received their benefits on November 1st, as scheduled,” McConnell said.
“USDA didn’t do that,” he said. “Even on November 1st, USDA refused to use emergency funds mandated by Congress, and now the USDA cannot scream that states will not be able to pay beneficiaries in a timely manner for weeks or months because they are not prepared to make partial payments.”
Earlier Thursday, a coalition of about 24 states asked another federal judge in Boston to order the administration to fully fund SNAP benefits. McConnell’s order came before a judge could rule on the request.
“A judge in Rhode Island just stopped the federal government from starving millions of Americans,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs in the Boston case, said in a statement.
“I’m relieved that our people have access to the food they need, but it’s outrageous that we have filed a lawsuit to force the federal government to feed our people,” James said.
