The new guidance issued late Saturday follows a US Supreme Court order on Friday that allowed the Trump administration to continue withholding US$4 billion to fully fund the aid for nearly 42 million recipients, pending a lower court ruling.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, lapsed at the start of the month for the first time in the programme’s 60-year history due to the federal government shutdown, which is now in its 40th day.
Hours before the Supreme Court order, the USDA had informed states in a memo that it was working to comply with a federal judge’s order to fully fund SNAP, even as the administration moved to appeal the ruling.
After receiving that Friday memo, several states said they were beginning the process of issuing full benefits.
However, those state actions are now unauthorised because of the Supreme Court order, the USDA wrote in guidance released on Saturday.
“State governments should instead issue only partial benefits,” the USDA said.
“States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the memo issued by the USDA late Saturday said.
“Failure to comply with this memorandum may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the Federal share of state administrative costs and holding states liable for any over issuances that result from the noncompliance,” the USDA said.
Some states had previously said they would fund November SNAP benefits using state funds.
It was not immediately clear whether the memo applied to actions taken by those states.
The USDA did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Massachusetts and New Jersey, which were among the states that said on Friday they were moving to issue full benefits to SNAP recipients, criticised the guidance by the USDA.
“If President Trump wants to penalise states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court,” Massachusetts governor Maura Healey said in a written statement.
“We will continue to work with (Massachusetts) Attorney General (Andrea) Campbell to make sure everyone gets the full benefits they are owed,” Healey added.
A spokesman for New Jersey’s office of the governor said in a statement that the state is closely monitoring developments.
“Washington Republicans’ determination to starve American citizens during this government shutdown is shameful.
“We hope that a fair resolution to this unnecessary, unprecedented problem is reached soon and federal funding for SNAP and other lapsed programmes is backfilled,” the spokesman said.
Legal fight
States, cities and nonprofit organisations have sued the administration of President Donald Trump to issue full SNAP benefits after it said in October that the programme would lapse on Nov 1.
Two federal judges ruled on Oct 31 that the administration needed to at least partially fund the benefits using an agency contingency fund of about US$5 billion.
SNAP benefits cost about US$8 billion to US$9 billion per month.
The administration said it would comply with the order, but warned of weeks or months of delay due to technical hurdles.
Cities and nonprofits represented by the liberal legal group Democracy Forward argued those actions were inadequate and pressed US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island to order the administration to issue full benefits.
On Nov 6, McConnell ordered the administration to fully fund November SNAP benefits by the following day, which was quickly appealed by the Department of Justice.
The Supreme Court’s Friday order gave the Boston-based First US Circuit Court of Appeals additional time to consider the administration’s formal request to only partially fund the benefits.
As the legal fight plays out, SNAP recipients have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.