Appeals court says it won’t block order to fully fund SNAP as states begin issuing benefits
The government wanted to block an order that it fully fund SNAP for the month.
By Peter Charalambous, Katherine Faulders, and Justin Gomez
November 7, 2025, 4:25 PM
A federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration's request to lift a lower court's order that it fully fund SNAP for the month of November
The unanimous decision, from a panel of three judges on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, came as least nine states had already begun issuing SNAP benefits under the direction of the federal agency that operates SNAP, even as the Trump administration was fighting a judge's ruling ordering those benefits to be paid.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operates the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, told states Friday afternoon that it was working toward paying full November SNAP benefits.
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A letter from the USDA states that "later today, FNS will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor."
A group of local governments and nonprofits had urged the Court of Appeals to keep in place an order requiring the Trump administration to fully pay for November SNAP benefits.
The Trump administration had asked the circuit court to issue an emergency stay of U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr.'s ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund the SNAP by today, saying they are saving additional funds to pay for child nutrition programs known as WIC.
At issue was whether a federal judge can compel the government to use $4 billion from Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act Amendment of 1935 to fund November SNAP benefits.
The Trump administration argued that those funds are needed to support WIC programs and that using that money to pay for SNAP would essentially "starve Peter to feed Paul."
"Indeed, if every beneficiary of a mandatory spending program could run to court and force the agency to transfer funds from elsewhere, the result would be an unworkable and conflicting plethora of injunctions that reduce the federal fisc to a giant shell game," they argued in their filing.
The groups that brought the suit pushed back Friday against the government's argument.
"Defendants' bald assertion that they will face irreparable injury is entirely unsupported, and they callously disregard the grave harm that will befall Plaintiffs and millions of Americans if they succeed," they wrote, saying the $23 billion in remaining funds is more than enough to cover both WIC, which requires $3 billion a month to operate, and SNAP, which normally requires around $8.5 billion.
As the legal battle continued Friday, at least nine states said they began issuing November SNAP benefits.
Officials from California, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Pennsylvania said that full SNAP benefits were already available to some recipients. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also said she had directed state agencies to issue full SNAP benefits for the month.
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In a statement, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that his state "acted immediately" to process SNAP benefits after receiving funding from the USDA. Vermont also processed full SNAP benefits for November, according to state treasurer Mike Pieciak.
Kansas officials said they had already distributed more than $31.6 million in SNAP benefits to 86,000 households, and Wisconsin officials said they had distributed $104.4 million to 337,137 households.
During a tense court hearing Thursday, Judge McConnell accused the Trump administration of "withholding SNAP benefits for political reasons."
Last week McConnell ordered the government to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP in time for the Nov. 1 payments to be made -- but the administration, saying they had to save the additional funds for WIC, committed to only partially funding SNAP.
McConnell, in his ruling Thursday, ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP for the month of November by Friday. He directly rebuked President Donald Trump for stating "his intent to defy" a court order when Trump said earlier this week that SNAP will not be funded until the government reopens from the ongoing government shutdown.
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In their court filing Friday, the Trump administration said that Trump was "just stating a fact," and not using SNAP as leverage.
"The district court also accused the President of bad faith for declaring that full SNAP benefits would not resume until the government reopens. But that was just stating a fact--the appropriation has lapsed, and it is up to Congress to solve this crisis," the filing said.
The government has asked the circuit court to allow USDA to continue with the partial payment of SNAP and to "not compel the agency to transfer billions of dollars from another safety net program with no certainty of their replenishment."
McConnell himself denied a request from the government to stay his own decision, saying, "The request for a stay of this decision, either a stay or an administration stay, is denied. People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable."
"People have gone without for too long, not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable," the judge said.
ABC News' Michael Pappano contributed to this report.
