Trump’s USDA Ordered States to ‘Undo’ the Full SNAP Payments They’d Already Sent

The Trump administration ordered states to “immediately undo” the full November SNAP payments some of them had already sent out to low-income families. The order came yesterday, just hours after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked full program funding. States that don’t comply risk losing federal administrative money.

The directive, which followed an emergency stay from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson late Friday, called states’ full November payments unauthorized. Multiple states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, had already started distributing the benefits after a lower court ordered full payments. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he wouldn’t comply.

SNAP payments halted earlier this month for the first time in the programs 61-year history because of the 40-day government shutdown. The administration is still fighting a judge’s order to tap about $4 billion in other USDA money to pay full benefits, while the lawsuits keep stacking up.

Now USDA says states can only issue partial payments reflecting a 35% cut in maximum allotments. That means tens of millions of Americans will see smaller grocery budgets right as food prices rise and food pantries run out of capacity.

If the goal was to make hunger a policy tool, mission accomplished.

Correction, September 28th, 2026: This post first said the administration ordered states to claw back full SNAP benefits from nearly 42 million people - the order told the states that had already sent full November payments to undo them, and 42 million is everyone on SNAP. The headline now says so.

Update, September 28th, 2026: One line now says what the $4 billion is - other USDA money a judge ordered the administration to tap for full benefits, which it says belongs to child nutrition programs - and another now makes clear it was USDA, not Justice Jackson, that called the full payments unauthorized.