USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP payments

Volunteers hand out boxes of food amid government shutdown

(Image credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

What happened

The Trump administration late Saturday told states to “immediately undo” any full food aid payments they had made to residents in a brief window between a federal court order and a Supreme Court pause of that ruling Friday night. States that did not “comply” with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s memo on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments could face “various actions,” including loss of funds or clawed back payments, the USDA said.

Who said what

The administration “has altered federal guidance on SNAP on a near daily basis” this month, “first directing states to pay partial benefits, then saying USDA would comply with full benefits, then filing an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court,” Politico said. As the “legal fight plays out,” Reuters said, many of the 42 million SNAP recipients “have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.”

It would be “unlawful” for the USDA to claw back paid benefits without due process, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told The Washington Post. It would not be “legal,” agreed Georgetown University law professor David Super, but the USDA’s goal was likely to “scare states partway along the process” to issuing full benefits and tell them “to turn back,” he told The New York Times.

What next?

The USDA memo “surprised, vexed and frustrated many state leaders,” the Times said, “and by Sunday, some had begun to explore their legal options.” Massachusetts residents with funds on their SNAP cards “should continue to spend it on food,” Gov. Maura Healey (D) said Sunday, and if President Donald Trump “wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court.”

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.