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The Trump administration on Saturday night ordered states to “immediately undo” any steps taken to deliver full food stamp benefits to low-income families, escalating confusion and hardship for millions as the government shutdown entered its seventh week.
In a memo obtained by The New York Times, the Agriculture Department directed states to halt or reverse any disbursement of full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments and warned of financial penalties for noncompliance. The guidance, issued by senior USDA official Patrick A. Penn, said states must issue only “partial” payments for November, even if they had already begun distributing full benefits.
“To the extent states sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Penn wrote. “Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits.”
The directive comes just days after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP for the month, citing evidence that millions of recipients had gone hungry due to delayed payments. The Supreme Court temporarily paused that order late Friday while an appeals court reviews it — leaving the nation’s largest anti-hunger program in legal limbo.
States caught in the middle
Several states, including New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, scrambled on Friday to comply with the lower court’s ruling by issuing full SNAP benefits to residents. By Sunday morning, those same states said they were uncertain how to respond to the new USDA directive.
Representative Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, blasted the administration’s move.
“They would rather go door to door, taking away people’s food, than do the right thing and fully fund SNAP,” Craig said. “This is cruelty by design.”
SNAP provides food assistance to roughly 42 million Americans — about one in eight — and is jointly administered by federal and state governments. States process benefit files and send them to electronic benefit transfer (E.B.T.) vendors, which make funds available on recipients’ cards.
By ordering states to stop or reverse those transfers, the Agriculture Department could disrupt aid for millions who have already gone days without access to food assistance.
The USDA memo also warned that noncompliant states could lose access to federal administrative funds for SNAP and might even be held financially liable for unauthorized payments.
The warning came just one day after two dozen states filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts, seeking protection from federal punishment over the chaotic rollout of food stamp payments. The states said they were being forced to navigate contradictory guidance from Washington.
In response, Justice Department lawyers argued late Saturday that states “must not disburse federal funds beyond their authorized limits,” even during a shutdown.
“The cruelty is the point”
Democrats in Congress condemned the latest order as part of a broader pattern of politically motivated governance during the shutdown.
“The cruelty is the point,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “It is their choice to do this.”
The Agriculture Department and the White House budget office did not respond to requests for comment.
With SNAP funding still tied up in the courts and the shutdown showing no signs of ending, millions of families — including veterans, seniors, and children — remain unsure when or if their next food assistance payment will arrive.
