BREAKING: Trump Administration Must Use Emergency Funds For SNAP Benefits During Government Shutdown, Federal Judge Rules

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding during the government shutdown using contingency funds.

The ruling comes one day before funding for the program was set to lapse.

U.S District Judge John McConnell, an Obama appointee, ordered the administration to use a roughly $5.25 billion emergency fund to cover it.

“The roughly $5.25 billion fund is not enough to fully cover November benefits for the food assistance program, which will cost the government upward of $9 billion,” The Hill stated.

BREAKING: An Obama judge just decided President Trump’s administration is REQUIRED to pay SNAP benefits to Americans during the Schumer Shutdown

…the judge also ordered Trump to find money from somewhere else (I guess) if “contingency” funds aren’t enough

Absolutely… pic.twitter.com/UaaAdizTuN

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 31, 2025

The Hill has more:

But U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order prevents the administration from completely drying up the benefit for more than 40 million Americans starting Saturday, rejecting arguments that the emergency fund can be used only for hurricanes or other uncontrollable catastrophes.

“SNAP benefits have never, until now, been terminated,” McConnell said at a hearing. “And the United States has in fact admitted that the contingency funds are appropriately used during a shutdown and that occurred in 2019.”

He ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to distribute the emergency funds “timely or as soon as possible” and provide an update to the court by Monday.

The looming SNAP lapse became the latest visible sign of the government shutdown, which has dragged into a fifth week.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani declined to immediately order the program be funded.

BREAKING: A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the Trump administration’s attempt to suspend SNAP funding is “unlawful,” but declined to immediately order that the program be funded. https://t.co/11TQUKduLn pic.twitter.com/0WtBqsS5T0

— ABC News (@ABC) October 31, 2025

NBC News shared:

Ruling in favor of a group of cities and community organizations that sued over the cuts, McConnell said that the USDA must fund SNAP using money in a contingency fund. But, he added that if the department finds that the money in the contingency fund is insufficient, then the agency must use other funding sources to make those payments.

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“There is no doubt that the six billion dollars in contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation,” McConnell said in his oral ruling. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP. It just does away with the funding of it. There could be no greater necessity than the prohibition across the board of funds for the program’s operations.”

McConnell added, “there is no doubt, and it is beyond argument, that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn’t already occurred in the terror it has caused some people about the availability of funding for food for their family.”

McConnell addressed the Trump administration’s argument that contingency funds might be needed for other reasons in the near future, like in the aftermath of a hypothetical hurricane.

“It’s clear that when compared to the millions of people that will go without funds for food versus the agency’s desire not to use contingency funds in case there’s a hurricane need, the balances of those equities clearly goes on the side of ensuring that people are fed,” the judge said.