What SNAP beneficiaries are getting in November
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The Trump administration revised the calculations states must use for stopgap SNAP payments after finding errors, it said in court, adding to the uncertainty over the food benefits.
Why it matters: The roughly 42 million Americans who rely on these benefits to pay for groceries are going to struggle — some recipients will get 65% of what they would normally receive, others less, using the USDA's updated calculations.
- The calculations may also result in benefit delays, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said on X earlier this week. She blamed the Democrats and the government shutdown for the difficulties.
Zoom in: "Further analysis found more room in the contingency," a USDA spokesperson tells Axios. "All of this would be solved if Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government."
Catch up quick: Two federal judges ruled last week that the Trump administration must pay SNAP benefits in the shutdown.
- But the judges also ruled that the administration has flexibility to offer partial funds.
Zoom in: The White House has said that it has $4.65 billion available to spend— about half of what would normally go out — and cannot legally spend any more.
- But in guidance to the states that went out earlier this week, the USDA, which runs SNAP, instructed them to calculate partial payments in a way that would result in spending only about $3 billion, according to an analysis from the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
- The CBPP modeled the administration's calculation using data on SNAP households' income, household composition and expenses.
The latest: The CBPP filed their findings with the court Wednesday. Later in the day, the USDA told the court that it was fixing the error.
- "Defendants realize this error and worked to issue new guidance and tables as soon as it was discovered," associate attorney general Stanley Woodward said in a filing late Wednesday.
Reality check: Despite the fix, some households will get less than 50% of benefits because of the way the administration is doing the calculation, says Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economics studies at the Brookings Institution who studies SNAP.
Zoom out: State officials and anti-hunger groups had expressed concerns with the way partial benefits were being calculated, per the New York Times.
- A Pennsylvania official said the USDA had chosen the "most complex and labor-intensive approach possible" on the partial benefits in a letter to the agency, CNN reported.
- Minnesota is asking the USDA to reconsider how benefits are being calculated, a state official told a local Fox affiliate. A uniform reduction in benefits would be easier to handle than the income recalculations, state officials said.
- Other states are still working on recalculating the numbers. Timing on when benefits go out will depend on their technological capabilities.
What to watch: Another court hearing on SNAP benefits is scheduled for later on Thursday.
