Two federal judges told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in separate rulings Friday that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funds to provide federal food assistance to poor American families despite the federal shutdown, but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.
Both Obama-appointed judges rejected the Trump administration's arguments that more than $5 billion in USDA contingency funds could not legally be used to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for nearly 42 million Americans while the federal government remains shut down. But both also left it unclear how exactly the relief should be provided, or when it will arrive for millions of families who will lose benefits starting Saturday.
The two rulings occurred almost simultaneously on Friday.
In Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani stopped short of granting California and a coalition of 24 other Democratic-led states a temporary restraining order they had requested. But it ruled that the states were likely to succeed in their arguments that the USDA's complete shutdown of SNAP benefits, despite having billions in emergency contingency funds available, was illegal.
Talwani gave the USDA until Monday to tell him whether they would authorize “only reduced SNAP benefits” using the contingency funds – which would not cover the total $8.5 billion to $9 billion needed for all November benefits, according to the USDA – or authorize “full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and the additional funds available.”
Separately, in Rhode Island, U.S. District Judge John McConnell granted a temporary restraining order sought by nonprofits, ruled from the bench that SNAP must be funded at least with contingency funds and requested an update on progress by Monday.
The White House referred questions about the ruling to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the administration would appeal the rulings.
The Massachusetts order was a victory for California and the other Democratic-led states, which sued over stopping SNAP benefits, which were formerly known as food stamps, as Republicans and Democrats continue to argue over reopening the government in Washington.
However, this won't mean all of the country's SNAP recipients, including 5.5 million Californians, will be spared a disruption to their food aid, state officials stressed, as state and local food banks continue to scramble to prepare for an onslaught of needs starting Saturday.
Asked Thursday whether a ruling in favor of the states would mean SNAP funds would be immediately loaded onto CalFresh and other benefit cards, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, whose office helped file the states' lawsuit, said “unfortunately, the answer is no.”
“Our best estimates are that [SNAP benefit] The cards could be loaded and used in about a week,” he said, calling that delay “problematic.”
“There could be about a week where people are hungry and need food,” he said. For new applicants to the program, he said, it could take even longer.
The rulings came as the month-long shutdown continued Friday with no immediate end in sight. The Senate adjourned Thursday and has no plans to reconvene until Monday.
It also came after President Trump on Thursday called on the Senate to end the shutdown by first ending the filibuster, a long-standing rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections to legislation. The rule has traditionally been favored by lawmakers as a means to block particularly partisan measures, and is currently being used by Democrats to resist the will of the current 53-seat Republican majority.
“The time has come for Republicans to play their 'TRUMP CARD' and go for what is called the nuclear option: get rid of the filibuster and get rid of it, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank CEO Michael Flood, standing next to Bonta as members of the California National Guard worked behind them filling boxes of food, said his organization was preparing for massive lines on Saturday, the first of the month.
He said he expected long lines of families in need of food to appear outside food distribution sites across the region, just as they did during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a disaster situation for us here in Los Angeles County, throughout the state of California and across the country,” Flood said.
“5.5 million Californians, 1.5 million children and adults in Los Angeles County alone, will be left destitute, illegally, needlessly and morally bankrupt,” Bonta said.
Bonta blamed the shutdown on Trump and his administration, saying the USDA has billions of dollars in contingency funds designed to ensure SNAP benefits continue during emergencies and violated the law by not using those funds in the current situation.
Bonta said SNAP benefits have never been interrupted during previous federal government shutdowns, and they should not have been interrupted during this shutdown either.
“That was avoidable,” he said. “Trump created this problem.”
The Trump administration has placed the entire blame for the shutdown and imminent discontinuation of SNAP benefits on Democrats in Congress, who have blocked short-term spending measures to restart the government and fund SNAP. Democrats are resisting pressure on Republicans to rescind massive cuts to subsidies that help millions of Americans afford health insurance.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson previously told the Times that it should be Democrats who are asked “when the shutdown will end,” because “they are the ones who have decided to shut down the government so they can use American workers and SNAP benefits as 'leverage' to carry out their radical left agenda.”
“Americans are suffering because of the Democrats,” Jackson said.
In opposing the states' request for a temporary restraining order requiring the disbursement of funds, USDA attorneys argued that using emergency funds to cover November SNAP benefits would deplete funds intended to provide “critical support in the event of natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes” and could, in fact, cause further benefit disruptions in the future.
They wrote that SNAP requires between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month, and the USDA's contingency fund has only about $5.25 billion, meaning it could not fully fund November benefits even if it released contingency funds. Meanwhile, “a partial payment has never been made, and for good reason,” because it would force all states to recalculate benefits for recipients and then recalibrate their systems to provide the new amounts, they wrote.
That “would take weeks, if it is even possible to do so,” and would then have to be undone in order to issue December benefits at normal levels, assuming the shutdown had been lifted by then, they wrote. “The disruption this would entail, with each State forced to repeatedly reprogram its systems, would lead to chaos and uncertainty for months to come, even after a period concludes,” they wrote.
Simply pausing benefits to immediately reissue them when the shutdown ends is the smartest and least disruptive course of action, they argued.
During a Thursday hearing in the states' case, Talwani had suggested that existing rules required action by the government to prevent the kind of suffering that a complete halt to food assistance would cause, regardless of the political standoff occurring between the parties in Washington.
“If you don't have money, you tighten your belt,” he said in court. “You're not going to make everyone drop dead because somewhere it's a political game.”
In addition to suing the administration, California and its leaders have rushed to ensure that hungry families have something to eat in the coming days. Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $80 million to food banks to stock up on supplies and activated the National Guard to help package food for those in need.
Counties have also been working to offset the need, including directing additional funds to food banks and other resource centers and asking private sector partners for help.
Dozens of organizations in California have written to Newsom asking him to use state funds to fully cover missing federal benefits, to avoid “a crisis of unthinkable magnitude,” but Newsom has suggested that is not possible given the scale of funds withheld.
According to the USDA, about 41.7 million Americans received services through SNAP per month in fiscal year 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion. Of the 5.5 million California beneficiaries, children and seniors represent more than 63%.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
