SNAP Money Still Faces Delays after Judges Order Release of Emergency Funds

The Washington Post

12:13 JST, November 2, 2025

Mayors and governors from San Francisco to Virginia will cover millions of dollars in missing federal assistance to feed their most vulnerable residents as the Trump administration battles orders from two federal judges to release backup funds.

The desperate dash to replace money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, is unfolding in both red states and blue states as funding for the program that feeds 42 million Americans – most of whom are children, elderly or disabled – ran out Saturday. Four weeks into the government shutdown, the Trump administration has so far declined to use billions in contingency funds to cover the shortfall.

On Friday, a Rhode Island federal judge said the Agriculture Department must distribute the contingency funds “as soon as possible.” Another federal judge in Massachusetts also directed the government to decide by Monday whether it would use the reserves for food aid. Hours after the rulings were issued, President Donald Trump added to the confusion, saying he had asked government attorneys to clarify with the courts how to get SNAP funds out as quickly as possible.

It was not immediately clear how soon that would happen, but no matter the administration’s decision or any additional legal wrangling, analysts say there will still be a delay in the delivery of payments. SNAP wasn’t funded before the government shut down on Oct. 1, and Saturday marked the first monthly payment deadline since then. It can take days to restart the multistep system that sends money to recipients. That means local stopgap measures will remain critical for families struggling to afford food.

Numerous state and local governments have stepped into the breach with an array of emergency assistance – city hall-sponsored food drives, rent and utility relief and a surge of additional funding for food banks to help them cope with skyrocketing demand. But a handful of states and cities are taking a more aggressive step: sending residents direct aid to replace their missing SNAP benefits, effectively sewing patches onto a torn social safety net.

“Our city is not going to let this federal government shutdown prevent 112,000 San Franciscans from putting food on the table for their families,” said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who on Wednesday said the city would spend $18 million to send preloaded cards to each of its SNAP recipients.

New Mexico said this past week that the state would spend $30 million to cover benefits for the first 10 days of November. Delaware promised about 120,000 residents that they will receive 25 percent of their monthly benefits each week in November until the shutdown ends or federal money flows again. In Hawaii, leaders have promised every food stamp recipient at least $250 each.

In Washington, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Thursday that she would use city reserves to cover an estimated $29 million in benefits for approximately 140,000 residents through the end of November, if necessary.

“We were hopeful it wouldn’t come to this – and we still need the federal government to reopen as soon as possible – but for right now, we’re moving forward to ensure we take care of D.C. residents in November,” Bowser said.

Several Republican governors – Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Phil Scott of Vermont – have likewise chosen to backfill some or all SNAP benefits for their residents.

In his ruling, Rhode Island Judge Jack McConnell said “irreparable harm will begin to occur” if the federal government does not resume payment of SNAP benefits.

In a separate case in Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the administration’s refusal to release the contingency funds is probably unlawful. Talwani did not grant the order that a coalition of 26 Democratic state attorneys general and governors were looking for, which would have forced the administration to release contingency funds Saturday. But she did direct USDA to decide by Monday whether it will authorize that release.

As they wait for more clarity, local leaders have stressed that their Band-Aid solutions are short-term and imperfect. In some states, they cover only certain SNAP recipients; in others, there is only enough money for a few weeks.

“It is not sustainable,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D). “I cannot take on this for 460,000 New Mexicans. The federal government, this is their responsibility.”

New Mexico has the nation’s highest share of residents reliant on SNAP, at 21 percent. If the federal delay stretches beyond that, Lujan Grisham said she would push for a special legislative session to appropriate additional money.

The state has strong reserves, fueled by the oil and gas industry, and Lujan Grisham said it may be able to replace federal dollars through the end of the year. But a ripple effect could lead to cutbacks elsewhere in New Mexico. And the Trump administration has signaled it would not reimburse states that use their own funds to cover the gap.

“It’s outrageous and cruel,” Lujan Grisham said, noting that the federal government has continued making food-assistance payments during previous shutdowns.

In Delaware, Gov. Matt Meyer (D) declared a state of emergency to address the lapse in SNAP funding. As in New Mexico, Delaware’s recipients will see the funds deposited directly onto their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards. While the money comes from a different source, residents will be able to use it in the same way.

The effort will cost about $5 million per week – “which in Delaware, is a large amount of money,” Meyer said. He asked his staff to crunch the numbers and is confident the state can keep it up through the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We’re going to keep this program alive for as long as we can and look under every rock to get resources,” Meyer said.

Landry on Wednesday blamed congressional Democrats for the government shutdown while announcing that Louisiana, where nearly 1 in 5 receive SNAP, would fund most residents’ benefits for the coming month. About 50,000 recipients who are “able-bodied” would not be eligible for the state program, Landry said.

Scott, the Republican governor of a blue state, said that both parties were to blame for their political gamesmanship.

“It’s our obligation at this point as states to do what we can for the people we serve,” he said in a briefing with reporters after announcing Vermont’s $6 million initiative that will cover food assistance for half of November.

Elsewhere, lawmakers have continued to debate the question of whether the state should step in. More than 50 Texas Democrats sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday, urging him to use emergency funding to pay for the benefits of 3.5 million residents.

“This is a human capital natural disaster,” said State Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat. As a child, Walle’s mother held down two jobs and sometimes relied on SNAP to feed their family. “And thank God for that safety net,” he said.

Abbott’s office said it would “connect families to existing assistance until the federal government gets back to work” and accused Democrats of using low-income Texans “as bargaining chips.”

Meanwhile, cities, with smaller budgets and more limited infrastructure, have fewer options. In San Francisco, Lurie drew from a considerable emergency fund, which the local government had set aside earlier this year in anticipation of a range of federal funding losses. (California is not among the states covering the SNAP gap.)

The city paired that money with a matching donation from the charity of billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz, securing a total of $18 million for the city’s SNAP recipients. Because cities, unlike states, lack the power to load EBT cards directly, San Francisco is mailing letters to everyone enrolled in the benefits program, which will contain codes allowing them to access separate digital or physical cards containing their monthly stipend.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for us,” Lurie said. “We don’t have the luxury here in San Francisco of debating the politics of this. We just have to get the job done.”

On a call with several Democratic mayors on Thursday, Randall Woodfin of Birmingham, Alabama, said he hoped his city would be able to send residents direct payments but said staff were still “working out the mechanics.” Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, however, said her city didn’t have the budget to cover lost assistance.

“We need the federal government to provide what they have promised,” she said.

The patchwork of local efforts – the state or city you live in determining whether you receive your allotted food aid – underscores a dire reality of the SNAP crisis: There is no making up for missing federal funds, said Julia Wolfson, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies SNAP policy.

“This is a very dangerous place to be in,” she said. “This federal lapse in funding is something that states, cities and the emergency food system can’t fill on their own. It’s a public health crisis in the making.”

If the federal funding delay drags into mid-November, then December benefits could be at risk, too, said Gina Plata-Nino, the SNAP director at the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit.

“I feel like it’s groundhog day,” she said. “This could have been avoided. These are hardworking Americans who are not chess pieces. They are not political pawns.”