November 3, 2025
After weeks of saying they couldn’t do it — the Trump administration just agreed to release that contingency money to pay SNAP benefits to the 42 million Americans who need it….but – it’s not going to be the full benefit…and it’s probably not going to show up on your EBT card today….and I’m going to explain why.
According to this court document that was just filed in the federal district of Rhode Island the Trump administration said the contingency – or emergency fund for SNAP – as of November 2025 has $4.65 billion in it. But as I’ve been reporting SNAP benefits cost the US government about $8 billion a month. So – if there’s only a little more than $4.5 billion in the fund – according to the court document – that means SNAP recipients will receive about 50% or half of what they normally receive in their monthly payment. The average SNAP benefit for a qualified household is about $350 a month – that means – recipients will receive on average $175 for the month of November.
This also means – according to the Trump administration’s court filing – that no funds will be available for any *new* SNAP applicants who were certified in November and there will be no SNAP benefits available if there is a disaster – like a hurricane and people need food.
Now – if you are a SNAP beneficiary when are you going to see this money? Well – here’s the thing it’s going to take a while. That’s because even in normal circumstances — it takes time for the money to be released by the federal government and physically put on to each individual EBT card. But this is much different. The Trump administration told the court in todays’ filing, that they will issue a notice to the states about this partial snap payment today. Once that happens, each state will have to recode their system to make the partial payment adjustment and then once that happens the states will send that new amount to the state processors who then physically put the money on EBT cards. But there’s a huge problem for some states. According to the court document – some state’s – not all – but some have super old systems and making these recoding changes could lead to SNAP payment delays “anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months.” Now – some states have modern systems and it won’t be a problem – but for those with clunky old systems – the Trump administration is telling the judge that it absolutely will be a problem. So – if you are a snap beneficiary, it would be wise for you to check your state’s snap website for the latest update on when this partial payment will hit your EBT card.
The other thing that could – of course – fix all of this is if congress gets back to work and passes some kind of spending bill to reopen the federal government. Then SNAP would be fully funded again. The problem is – the House – is yet again on recess this week – and the Senate is not putting forward any new plan to get out of this mess. And here’s the thing – it’s going to become harder and harder for Republicans to say that the Democrats should just pass the House’s continuing resolution to reopen the government. Why? Because that continuing resolution expires on November 21st. That means – even if Democrats say ok – we’ll just vote yes –which they won’t – in just about two weeks from now – we’ll be right back here – in another government shutdown.
The bottom line is – there must be a new plan. Because the one they got – isn’t going to work.
Read the court filing here.
