USDA says SNAP benefit cuts won’t be as deep as originally announced

President Donald Trump’s administration now says that SNAP food aid for November will be reduced less than originally announced, the latest in a political and legal saga that impacts how about 1 in 8 Americans can buy groceries.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a court filing late Wednesday that it caught an error in its earlier plan to reduce the maximum benefit by half and said that beneficiaries would instead get up to 65% of their usual assistance.

But some people will see deeper cuts, with some receiving no benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program for November. If the government shutdown continues into December, there’s not a plan for funding at all.

The benefit cards could be loaded as soon as Friday in Louisiana and will take longer in most states.

Administration says the cuts won’t be as deep — after a series of twists and turns

What the nation’s nearly 42 million people who receive the food aid can expect has been in flux for weeks.

The Trump administration said last month that it would not pay benefits at all for November because of the federal shutdown. Last week, two judges ordered the government to pay at least partial benefits using an emergency fund. On Monday, the administration said it would not use additional money — but that the required fund had enough to cover half the usual benefits for November.

The next day, Trump appeared to threaten not to pay the benefit s at all unless Democrats in Congress agreed to reopen the government. His press secretary later said that the partial benefits were being paid for November — and that it is future payments that are at risk if the shutdown continues.

Late Wednesday, the USDA, which runs the program, said in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island that it had done further analysis and found that the maximum benefit will be 65% of the usual amount.

Speaking at the Greater Boston Food Bank in Massachusetts Thursday morning, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said the Trump administration is sending mixed messages: “Come on. You know, you’re going to partially fund food for Americans? You’re going let people starve?”

The benefit reduction math means most households will see cuts of more than 35%

While SNAP reductions like this have never come into play, there is a decades-old federal regulation for how they should be carried out.

Under the formula, benefits are reduced by 35% for households receiving the maximum amount. And households of the same size would have benefits reduced by the same dollar amount. For a family of three, the benefit would be reduced by $275. For a person living alone, it would drop by $105, according to an analysis by Ben Molin, who runs SNAP Screener, a website about benefits.

That means that the lowest-income families would be impacted the least. An analysis by the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that in the 12 months that ended in September 2024, just over one-third of beneficiaries received the maximum amount.

There’s another wrinkle, which applies only to households with one or two people: Their minimum benefit would be $16. Some bigger households are in line to receive nothing for November.

Carmel Scaife, a former day care owner in Milwaukee who hasn’t been able to work since receiving multiple severe injuries in a car accident seven years ago, said she normally receives $130 a month from SNAP. She said that despite bargain hunting, that’s not nearly enough for a month’s worth of groceries.

Scaife, 56, said that any cuts to her benefit will mean she’ll need to further tap her Social Security income for groceries. “That’ll take away from the bills that I pay,” she said. “But that’s the only way I can survive.”

When cards will be recharged depends on the state

States are working through the math and systems updates to get partial payments out to beneficiaries.

Louisiana officials have said they could start rolling by Friday, Connecticut and North Carolina by next week. And for some states, it’s unclear. Alabama’s Department of Human Resources said this week that it’s unclear how long it will take. “This will be a cumbersome process, including revised eligibility systems, state notification procedures, and ultimately delayed benefits,” Alabama’s Department of Human Resources said in statement this week.

The USDA warned in a court filing earlier in the week that it could take some states months to get the partial benefits onto debit cards used for the program.

Most states have increased funding for food banks and some have launched programs to provide direct state-funded benefits to SNAP recipients.

Cities and nonprofits ask judge to force full funding

Lawyers for the USDA and the cities and nonprofit groups that sued to keep funding rolling in November were expected to make their cases at a hearing on a request for a judge to require full SNAP funding for the month.

The groups said in a court filing in federal court in Rhode Island that partial benefits would not “adequately remedy the harm.”

The government said it’s using other funding to make sure child nutrition programs can keep running through the shutdown.

“It cannot be arbitrary and capricious for USDA to decline to raid an entirely different program, to the tune of billions of dollars,” the agency said in a filing, “in the mere hope that Congress will fix the ensuing deficit through the general appropriations process.”

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Associated Press reporters Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; and Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this article.