Trump/GOPs screwing up, screwing around on SNAP, and benefits won't be out for a while

Just wanted to give a little accumulation of information on the SNAP situation.

First of all, it's indisputable that the law says the Trump Administration has to release these funds for SNAP, and that the money has been set aside. Bobby Kogan from the Center for American Progress, who knows a helluva lot more about budget stuff than I do, shows us the actual words on the paper.

Again, here's the *entire* text for the SNAP contingency fund. It says it's for when you need it for carry out program operations. It doesn't say "it's for when there's some money but not enough." Give me a fucking break. It can obviously be used on benefits during a shutdown.

[image or embed]

— Bobby Kogan (@bbkogan.bsky.social) October 31, 2025 at 11:46 AM

See that? There are extra funds set aside in case there aren't funds allocated to SNAP short-term, and they are good through September 30 of next year. The money is there.

Kogan also does a good rundown of the timeline and the confusing and often contradictory messages that the Trump Admin were sending out in relation to SNAP.

-Sep 30: USDA releases guidance saying they can use contingency fund -Oct 10: USDA tells states to prepare for lapse -Oct 23: USDA deletes guidance saying they can use contingency fund -Oct 24: USDA says it can’t use contingency fund -Oct 31: Courts tell USDA to release funds -Nov 1: no funds go out

— Bobby Kogan (@bbkogan.bsky.social) November 3, 2025 at 8:31 AM

Courts required the Trump Admin to send some of the contingency funds for SNAP. Well, at least some of it.

For the past two days, the administration has said in public statements and court filings that it will at least partially fund the program this month after US District Judge John McConnell’s ruling that the agencies should tap emergency funds to pay for food stamps…

One day earlier, the Justice Department said in a court filing the administration was working “diligently” to comply with a ruling last week from McConnell, a Rhode Island-based judge, requiring officials to at least partially fund SNAP.

The Agriculture Department, which administers the program, planned to “deplete” $4.65 billion in contingency money and provide recipients with 50% of the amount eligible households normally receive in November, the filing said. It also warned that recalculating benefits would be time-consuming.

But that means states and other administrators of SNAP benefits need to adjust how much each recipient gets, and that will mean that even the partial benefits for November will not be able to be used this month. This includes the SNAP recipients in Wisconsin.

Department of Health Services officials said because food stamp recipients' benefits will be reduced due to the partial funding, the state must wait for guidance from the Trump administration on how to move forward and then recalculate more than 367,000 households' benefits because the amount is lower than normal. That will take "weeks instead of days," the officials said….

If the Trump administration had fully funded the program, state government officials across the country would not have needed to overhaul their systems and benefits would have been delivered more quickly, according to Patrick Penn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official who oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

"Providing the full month of benefits would not have created the same unique challenges and delays," the Wisconsin officials wrote in an email to reporters.

Even worse, the Journal-Sentinel article says that the Trump Administration thought about moving money from school meal subsidies to pay for the full month of SNAP benefits. Then, they realized that would be even worse to shove the burdens onto school districts and school kids, and they backed off.

"USDA has determined that creating a shortfall in Child Nutrition Program funds to fund one month of SNAP benefits is an unacceptable risk, even considering the procedural difficulties with delivering a partial November SNAP payment, because shifting $4 billion dollars to America’s SNAP population merely shifts the problem to millions of America’s low income children that receive their meals at school," Penn wrote.

It’s yet another self-inflicted wound from the dimwits in the White House, as a conscious choice to not use these funds that were set aside by law.

I can't think Trump/GOP is winning on this, but they figured Dems would cave as the Trumpers pointed the gun at Americans that need SNAP. But Trump/GOP have been wrong on their calculus and their tactics throughout this shutdown, and it's why basically anyone that's not a MAGAt living in BubbleWorld is putting the blame on Republicans. We will see if some of that blame bears out in the elections that we have tonight.