A volunteer shows info on the Supplemental Dietary Help Program (SNAP) at a grocery retailer in Dorchester, Massachusetts, US, on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025.
Mel Musto | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
The Division of Agriculture issued a memo to states late Saturday night, threatening to enact monetary penalties if states that issued full month-to-month SNAP advantages for November do not “undo” the funds.
The late-night directive from the Trump administration provides to the chaos surrounding the anti-hunger program that serves greater than 42 million People.
The memo, signed by Patrick Penn, Deputy Beneath Secretary of the Division of Agriculture’s Meals, Vitamin, and Client Providers, warned states that the administration had not cleared full SNAP profit funds for November.
“To the extent States despatched full SNAP fee recordsdata for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” in keeping with the memo. State program directors have been directed to distribute 65% partial funds of SNAP advantages for the month as a substitute, the memo mentioned.
States should additionally “instantly undo any steps taken to subject full SNAP advantages for November 2025,” the memo mentioned. Failure to conform may end result within the USDA cancelling the federal share of administration prices or holding states financially accountable for “any overissuances that end result from the noncompliance.”
It was unclear how the USDA expects states to claw again any unauthorized SNAP funds.
The Agriculture Division and the White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
The USDA memo was first reported by The New York Instances.
The memo comes as some states scrambled to adjust to a courtroom ruling on Thursday, when a federal choose ordered the Trump administration to pay full SNAP advantages for November by Friday. The courtroom rejected the administration’s plan to partially fund the meals stamp program amid the U.S. authorities shutdown.
The USDA subsequently instructed states that it will start disbursing full SNAP advantages to adjust to that order, even because the ruling confronted an enchantment from the Trump administration.
The Related Press reported late Friday that greater than half a dozen states had “confirmed that some SNAP recipients already have been issued full November funds on Friday.”
Nonetheless, that order was paused by the Supreme Courtroom on Friday, opening the door for the Trump administration, or any plaintiffs, to problem the ruling.
The Trump administration had beforehand mentioned it will not use the contingency fund containing $4.65 billion to fund the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program in November. The whole price of full SNAP advantages for the month is round $8 billion.
This system, like different federal packages, has no at present appropriated cash, because of Congress failing to cross a spending invoice. That failure led to the U.S. authorities shutdown on Oct. 1.
Previous administrations have continued paying SNAP advantages throughout prior shutdowns.