The Trump administration has told states to reverse recent food aid payments made under court orders, intensifying the battle over SNAP funding as the government shutdown continues.
The directive, issued Saturday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), came just hours after the Supreme Court stayed lower court rulings that had required full November payments under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which serves more than 42 million Americans.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s late Friday order paused those rulings while an appeals court reviews the administration’s effort to block full funding. The USDA quickly informed state officials that any disbursements made in line with the previous rulings were now considered invalid.
“To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Patrick Penn, the USDA’s deputy undersecretary, wrote in a message to state directors. “Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
Penn also warned that states could face penalties for noncompliance. It remains unclear whether the directive covers states that used their own money to maintain the program or only those relying on federal funds. The USDA declined to comment further on the order, AP indicated in a report.
In a court filing Sunday, the agency argued that several states had “moved too quickly” in distributing full payments after last week’s favorable court rulings.
The administration’s move drew immediate criticism from both parties. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the order was “shocking” if it penalizes states that stepped in to use their own funds. “It’s one thing if the federal government is going to continue its level of appeal through the courts to say, no, this can’t be done,” Murkowski said. “But when you are telling the states that have said this is a significant enough issue in our state, we’re going to find resources, backfill or front load, whatever term you want, to help our people, those states should not be penalized.”
Democratic leaders reacted with equal frustration. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said her state had already processed payments before the Supreme Court’s decision and would resist any attempt to take the funds back.
“Massachusetts residents with funds on their cards should continue to spend it on food,” Healey said Sunday. “President Trump should be focusing on reopening the government that he controls instead of repeatedly fighting to take away food from American families.”
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The showdown comes after a week of legal whiplash. Nonprofits and Democratic attorneys general successfully sued to restore the program despite the shutdown, prompting courts to order the release of full benefits. The administration initially signaled it would comply while appealing, then reversed course once the Supreme Court stepped in.
More than two dozen states, led mostly by Democrats, warned in filings that without federal reimbursement for those payments, they face “catastrophic operational disruptions.” The states said they acted lawfully under court orders and that federal officials have since frozen reimbursements.
Wisconsin, for instance, distributed benefits to roughly 700,000 residents after a Rhode Island judge ordered SNAP restoration. But with the Treasury halting repayments, the state warned Sunday it could run out of money by Monday. “States could face demands to return hundreds of millions of dollars in the aggregate,” their filing with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals stated.
“That situation would risk catastrophic operational disruptions for the States, with a consequent cascade of harms for their residents,” the filing said.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, rejected the administration’s reversal outright. “No,” Evers said in a statement. “Pursuant to and consistent with an active court order, Wisconsin legally loaded benefits to cards, ensuring nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites, including nearly 270,000 kids, had access to basic food and groceries.”
Evers added that the USDA had previously “assured Wisconsin and other states that they were actively working to implement full SNAP benefits for November and would ‘complete the processes necessary to make funds available.’ They have failed to do so to date.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore also criticized the administration’s shifting stance. “In the past six days, we’ve received four different measures of guidance,” he said in a CBS interview Sunday. “There is a chaos, and it is an intentional chaos, that we are seeing from this administration.”
