The Trump administration, on a nightly evening memorandum released Saturday, demanded that all states working to provide full food stamp benefits through SNAP stop any measures they were taking to achieve this.
The Department of Agriculture threatened to impose financial penalties on states that do not quickly “comply” with its new orders.
“States should immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits by November 2025,” Patrick Penn, USDA Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, wrote in the memo.
People pick up food at a temporary food distribution hosted by the Alameda County Community Food Bank in cooperation with the Alameda County Social Services Agency in Oakland, California, on November 6, 2025.
John G Fragrant/ep/shutterstock
“Failure to comply with this memorandum may result in USDA taking various actions, including canceling the federal share of state administrative costs and holding states responsible for any overissues that result from noncompliance,” he added.
The new USDA directive comes as the U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture an administrative stay to suspend SNAP benefits while legal battles over them continue.
States like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have been moving quickly to provide SNAP benefits to residents.
-Steven Portnoy and Isabella Murray of ABC News
