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SNAP PAYMENTS BY STATE
Newsweek: By Aliss Higham on 14 Nov 2025
Source: Newsweek analysis of state SNAP agency announcements. See groovy, Newsweek interactive map that gives details on each state’s SNAP Benefit payments to date, here.
One Big Thing:
The government shutdown ended on Wednesday November 12, 2025, allowing SNAP benefits to resume for 42 million Americans in need of a decent meal. To-date, not everyone has received their full November 2025 benefits. The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed on July 4, 2025 also will require most SNAP recipients to meet onerous work and citizenship requirements, starting immediately. And this Administration intends to require everyone currently receiving SNAP to re-apply.
But First…The Manufactured Chaos:
The Trump Administration chose to fight federal court orders to immediately pay November SNAP benefits from its emergency fund designated by Congress, taking its appeal to the Supreme Court. The administration was granted a temporary stay of the lower courts’ orders, leaving a federal appeals court to figure out the mess.
Previously, the Administration stated it would release emergency funds to at least partially pay SNAP benefits during the government shutdown, but then changed its plan, according to New York Times reporting:
Initially, the Agriculture Department signaled that it would stave off an interruption to food stamps by tapping a set of emergency reserves, totaling about $5 billion — enough to provide at least partial payments. But the agency abruptly reversed course in late October, citing legal, technical and budgetary reasons for the change.
In the meantime, states which had paid full SNAP benefits from their own money were ordered by the USDA to reverse the payments and halt all efforts to continue sending the benefits:
Pending any explicit direction to the contrary from Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), states must not transmit full benefit issuance files to EBT processors. Instead, states must continue to process and load the partial issuance files that reflect the 35% reduction of maximum allotments detailed in the Nov. 5 guidance.
To the extent states sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, states must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025. USDA memorandum dated November 8, 2025.
Why It Matters To You:
This government shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, extending for 43 days and shuttering all but the most essential government services. According to a November 13 report from CBS News, at least 670,000 government workers were furloughed during the shutdown (and must, by law, receive back pay), another 730,000 federal employees were “deemed essential” and were required to work during the shutdown without pay (these workers also are required by law to be compensated for back pay). And the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) took a “sustained drop” of approximately $7 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The lapse in SNAP benefits has caused much anxiety among the one in eight Americans who receive food stamps and other types of help, like Medicaid and home heating and cooling assistance. The uncertainty surrounding whether any type of social safety net will be available for the mostly working poor, elderly and disabled who receive these benefits is made worse by this Administration’s direct focus on slashing federal spending to help the poor, in addition to making it much more difficult to get the benefits already available:
Mr. Trump and his budget director, Russell T. Vought, have dismantled entire agencies, fired thousands of workers and canceled or halted billions of dollars in federal spending — all without the express permission of lawmakers.
The White House has pursued these cuts in a bid to shrink domestic spending to its lowest level in modern history, primarily by targeting federal climate, education, health, housing and research programs, and a bevy of initiatives that aid the poor.
Millions of Americans who qualify today will be cut from SNAP benefits tomorrow because they must meet the new work and citizenship requirements outlined in the “Beautiful” bill passed by Congress in July. The additional paperwork and reporting requirements will no doubt overwhelm already underfunded state agencies implementing SNAP, in addition to the intended program recipients and directly affect every state budget and operations, according to a recent report by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL):
* Expanded Work Requirements (See details here);
* SNAP funding for nutrition education is eliminated;
* Additional noncitizen eligibility restrictions enacted: “Several legally present immigrant categories, including refugees, asylees and human trafficking survivors, will lose access to SNAP.” ;
* Administrative Cost Share will increase for all states from 50% to 75% ; and
* Benefit Cost Sharing/Payment Error Rates will change: “For the first time in the program’s history, states will be required to contribute to SNAP benefits if they have a payment error rate above 6%. A state’s payment error rate, or PER, is the combined percentage of overpayments and underpayments that a state makes in SNAP benefit allocations. Payment error rates are a measure of payment accuracy, not fraud.”
But Wait, There’s More:
The USDA announced that all current SNAP recipients will be required to reapply for benefits to root out fraud (no start date given yet), although most states require SNAP recipients to report any changes to their household income or size every six months. Here’s what the Agriculture Secretary had to say about the SNAP program:
“…the plan is to “have everyone reapply for their benefits, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through ... food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable and they can’t survive without it.”
And here are President Trump’s recent thoughts on the SNAP program:
“[SNAP] was meant for people that had real problems, in many cases people that were down and out, people that couldn’t be saved. It wasn’t meant for people who could do whatever they want, the people that say ‘well I don’t think I’ll work, I’ll just, you know, collect this money.’’
In other words, only the “truly needy” will receive food assistance. Does this mean that if you’re alive but at deaths’ door from lack of nutritious food, you won’t qualify for food stamps because you literally have “survived” without it?
Think of the extra state money required to implement the expanded work requirements and review all new SNAP applications. Think of the millions of Americans, your neighbors, family, friends and work colleagues who will go without food and/or suffer undue stress from applications and re-applications for a card loaded with an average of $177 a month for food.
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Here’s a link to my last post on SNAP benefits. Let’s hear your thoughts on the shutdown, SNAP debacle, new work requirements and other restrictions on receiving SNAP benefits being implemented right now.
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