{"id":7229,"date":"2025-11-07T18:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-administration-appeals-order-to-pay-full-november-snap-food-benefits-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:31:23","slug":"trump-administration-appeals-order-to-pay-full-november-snap-food-benefits-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-administration-appeals-order-to-pay-full-november-snap-food-benefits-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration appeals order to pay full November SNAP food benefits – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order for it to provide full SNAP food aid benefits<\/a> to states by Nov. 7.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Nov. 6 \u2013 the same day Rhode Island federal Judge John McConnell ordered the administration\u00a0to make full payments of November SNAP benefits to the states within a day. On Nov. 7, it asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to halt McConnell’s order by 4:00 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

“There is no lawful basis for an order that directs (the U.S. Department of Agriculture) to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions,” the administration said in its request<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McConnell instructed officials to use a combination of contingency funds and other funds he said were available to make the full payments during the federal government shutdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n

The administration previously told McConnell it wouldn’t use its discretion to tap into the non-contingency funds in order to make full November payments. It said in a Nov. 6 court filing<\/a> that Congress meant for those other funds to be used for child nutrition programs, which it said would face “an unprecedented and significant shortfall” if the money were redirected for SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n

McConnell ordered the administration to make the full payments only after it said it wouldn’t voluntarily do so.<\/p>\n

The judge wrote in his order<\/a> that any disruption to child food assistance is “hypothetical” and not projected to occur before May of 2026, “if at all.” Congress could replenish those funds before May, he noted.<\/p>\n

\"Items<\/figure>\n

By contrast, a failure to pay SNAP food aid presents “the very real and immediate risk of children being deprived of their food assistance today,” McConnell wrote.<\/p>\n

McConnell determined that the administration’s arguments “run so contrary to the evidence and are so implausible as to make them arbitrary and capricious.” That meant the administration’s decision likely runs afoul of a law called the Administrative Procedure Act, which restricts the actions of executive agencies. On that basis, he ordered the administration to pay out the full SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n

However, in its request for a halt to McConnell’s order, the administration said that law doesn’t apply to its decision on the funds, and even if it did, the decision “was eminently reasonable.”<\/p>\n

“Nothing in the SNAP statute contains any mandatory language directing the raiding of other USDA programs to fund a SNAP shortfall,” according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Ahead of that filing, Vice President JD Vance<\/u><\/a> slammed the decision as an “absurd ruling,” telling reporters Nov. 6, “In the middle of a shutdown, we can’t have a federal judge telling the president how he must triage the situation.”<\/p>\n

Vance seemed to suggest the administration might not comply with the order.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to keep as much going as possible,” he said. “The president and the entire administration are working on that, but we’re not going to do it under the orders of a federal judge.”<\/p>\n

Contributing: Joey Garrison\/USA TODAY<\/em><\/p>\n

This story has been updated with additional information and to correct the date of Vice President JD Vance<\/a>‘s statement. It was Nov. 6.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s order for it to provide full SNAP food aid benefits to states by Nov. 7. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Nov. 6 \u2013 the same day Rhode Island federal Judge John McConnell ordered the administration\u00a0to make full payments of November SNAP benefits to the states […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}