Updated November 6, 2025 at 11:32 AM CST
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration says it will cut November's SNAP food benefits by a bit less than previously announced. In revised guidance for states, which are calculating partial payments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says maximum allotments will be reduced by 35% instead of 50%.
The complex formula for reduced payments otherwise stays the same, and it will still mean steep cuts for those who rely on the country's largest anti-hunger program.
The administration says participants who get the maximum level of food stamp benefits will now get about 65% of their regular assistance for November. Advocates and policy groups say most — those who have other income from things like social security, disability or employment — will get far less.
USDA's change late Wednesday came after an analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which found the agency's original formula for partial payments would not have tapped all of its contingency funds. Two federal judges had found the administration is legally bound to spend that money to keep SNAP going.
CBPP also estimated the original reduced benefit plan would have left nearly 5 million people with no payment at all this month.
USDA did not respond to NPR's request for comment on the center's analysis or the changed plan. But in a court filing late Wednesday related to the revised partial payment formula, the Justice department wrote the agency "realized this error and worked to issue new guidance and tables as soon as it was discovered."
The change will be small in some cases. For example, the reduced minimum allotment for some 1-to-2 person households had been $12, and is now $16.
A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the administration to restart the country's largest anti-hunger program after funding lapsed last Saturday, a month into the government shutdown. USDA rejected the suggestion by that judge, and another federal judge in Boston, that it tap a larger pot of money to fully cover SNAP payments. Instead, it chose to use only a smaller contingency fund that could cover only about half of the program's monthly cost.
Implementing the administration's complex partial funding formula presents enormous procedural challenges for states, which administer the program that serves 42 million Americans. The USDA itself warned it could take weeks or even months to get the benefits to people.
"It requires a complete recalculation and a complete recoding of our system," said Tikki Brown, the head of Minnesota's Department of Children, Youth and Families. She said there is no timeline yet for payments in her state.
Danny Mintz, who works for the civic technology nonprofit Code for America, said some states have antiquated systems from the 1970s that make it difficult to quickly implement sweeping calculation changes.
"There are legitimate concerns that altering the calculations of benefits may break things," he said. "The quickest way for states to get benefits into people's hands is for USDA to fund the full amount of SNAP benefits."
Some states already are warning it could be weeks before payments can be made.
In a bluntly worded letter to USDA — seen by NPR member station WESA — Pennsylvania Human Services Secretary Val Arkoosh said the federal government is "directing states to use the most complex and labor-intensive approach possible."
Pennsylvania is asking to use a simpler, faster method that was allowed for pandemic-related aid, and would essentially give everyone half their SNAP payment.
The prospect of delays and missed payments has brought a group of cities and nonprofits back to federal court in Rhode Island, to force the Trump administration to comply with an order to restart SNAP aid "expeditiously."
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