A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to continue funding food stamp benefits despite the ongoing government shutdown, ruling in favor of state and local officials who argued that millions of low-income Americans were at risk of losing assistance.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell of Rhode Island issued the decision Friday, directing the administration to use emergency reserves to pay benefits “as soon as possible” next month.
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The ruling requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release contingency funds to ensure that November payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are made.
However, it remains uncertain when those funds will reach the approximately 42 million Americans who depend on SNAP or how much they will ultimately receive. The Justice Department has not yet indicated whether it will appeal the ruling.
The decision came as the Trump administration continued to resist calls to use billions of dollars in congressionally approved reserves to sustain SNAP during the shutdown.
The administration had maintained that it would not cover the shortfall, prompting lawsuits from states, local governments, and nonprofit organizations.
Ruling from the bench, Judge McConnell stated that the Agriculture Department “must distribute the contingency money timely or as soon as possible for the Nov. 1 payments to be made.”
The Rhode Island ruling followed a similar decision earlier in the day from U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts, who granted an early victory to two dozen states suing to compel the release of food stamp funding.
Judge Talwani gave the administration until Monday to explain how it would pay for November benefits.
It remains unclear how the two rulings will affect the immediate future of the program, which serves roughly one in eight Americans.
The Trump administration has previously warned that even if payments were issued, it could take weeks to process them and that benefits might be reduced to half their normal amount.
The back-to-back court decisions marked a significant setback for the White House.
Administration officials have argued that they have little power to continue SNAP funding, even as they redirected money to sustain other federal programs during the shutdown.
“The American people are already suffering, and the suffering is going to get a lot worse,” Vice President JD Vance said Thursday, adding that President Trump had “tried to do everything” possible to make the shutdown as “unpainless as possible.”
The potential lapse in SNAP funding could place severe financial strain on vulnerable families and communities.
Several states have begun using their own funds to temporarily cover food stamp benefits, though many say they can only do so for a limited period.
SNAP provides an average of about $187 per person each month and costs the federal government around $8 billion monthly.
The program also maintains a reserve fund—currently about $5 billion—that could cover at least partial payments in November if fully utilized.
