FILE - A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that are used by state welfare departments to issue benefits is displayed at a grocery store on December 04, 2019 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty I …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is demanding that states reverse full SNAP benefits that were issued under recent court orders.
What they're saying:
"To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized," Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of Agriculture, wrote to state SNAP directors on Saturday in a letter obtained by FOX Television Stations. "Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025."
The memo warned that states that don't comply could face consequences.
November SNAP payments
The backstory:
The food assistance program, which 42 million Americans rely on, has been in limbo for several weeks now amid the government shutdown.
Nonprofits and Democratic attorneys general sued in October to force the Trump administration to maintain the program in November. They won the favorable rulings last week, leading to the swift release of benefits to millions in several states.
But on Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an emergency order temporarily blocking full funding for the program while more lasting measures were being decided.
Presently:
That means states that loaded cards and sent through funding in between the two rulings are now waiting to be reimbursed from the Trump administration – which is now calling those payments "unauthorized." Leaders from more than two dozen states warned this weekend that "catastrophic operation disruptions" at the state level were coming if the federal funds don’t come through.
For example:
Wisconsin, for example, loaded benefits onto cards for 700,000 residents, but after the U.S. Treasury froze its reimbursements to the state, it anticipates running out of money by Monday, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' administration warned in a lengthy statement on Sunday.
READ MORE: Trump Admin. says Wisconsin should return payments
The Source: Information in this article was taken from a memo to state SNAP directors from Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of Agriculture. Background information was taken from previous FOX Television Station reportings and The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit.