Delays, lower payments: How SNAP funding will work

3:29 An employee of the Houston Food Bank fills boxes with free items during a special food distribution at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on November 1, 2025. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images

On Monday, the Trump administration said it would provide partial payments to about 42 million food stamp recipients in November, although the White House warned that the funds could take months to reach households.

This step promised something possible relief as the government shutdown approaches a record for the longest deadlock in the nation’s history.

The Trump administration, however, declined to use alternative funding that would have provided full SNAP benefits this month.

A move to partially fund SNAP could delay payments as states calculate and distribute food subsidies, and smaller payments could only give recipients a few days or weeks before they again face the threat of going without food, experts told ABC News.

“The stress that families across the country face is enormous, not even knowing how they’re going to feed their families,” Colleen Heflin, a professor of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University, told ABC News.

Here’s what you need to know about SNAP funding.

Does the Trump administration plan to provide SNAP benefits during the government shutdown?

So, the Trump administration said it plans to spend partial funds for food stamp recipients in November.

Emergency funding for SNAP will cover “50% of eligible households,” the Justice Department said in a court filing Monday. Justice Department lawyers agreed to spend $4.65 billion on SNAP, about half of the $8 billion expected in SNAP funding in November.

In the court filing, the Justice Department promised to spend money available in the reserve fund for SNAP, giving individual states the ability to “calculate the benefits available to each eligible family.”

Will SNAP benefits be delayed?

Some SNAP recipients were scheduled to receive their funds in the first few days of November, meaning their benefits had already been delayed. A logistical problem with partial aid delivery is expected to cause further delays in payments, although the timeline is likely to vary from state to state, experts told ABC News.

Using emergency funds to pay for reduced SNAP benefits could take “several weeks to several months,” a top USDA official told a federal judge in a sworn filing Monday.

Because food stamps are administered at the state level, the USDA is expected to instruct state agencies, which will then calculate the partial assistance level for each recipient and provide those numbers to be uploaded to electronic cards used by families, Tracy Roof, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island who studies the food stamp program, told ABC News.

“The scary part is that states have to make the appropriate changes to their payment amounts,” Ruf said. Operational disruption can range from a few days to more than a week after the federal directive, depending on the state.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks with Donald Trump during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House on September 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kevin Deitch/Getty Images

How will SNAP be funded during the government shutdown?

On Monday, the Trump administration pledged to spend SNAP funds held in an emergency account designed to help families in the event the program is cut.

That contingency fund totals about $6 billion, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, making the bill well short of the $8 billion needed to fully fund SNAP in November. The Trump administration said it would raise $4.65 billion.

The Trump administration has decided not to use a larger amount of money allocated by the Department of Agriculture for child nutrition programs. That alternative fund contains about $30 billion, well above the roughly $3 billion a month needed to fund matching child support payments, David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, told ABC News.

The pot of money has built up significant reserves thanks to annual surpluses and an agreement that the fund distributes a portion of tariff profits, Super added.

“The Trump administration can transfer enough SNAP money to make full payments in November without any possible risk to a child’s nutrition,” Super said, adding that the fund would likely also be able to provide full payments in December “without breaking a sweat.”

How long will partial SNAP funding stay in families?

SNAP’s partial funding would be about half of a typical family’s monthly allowance, although the exact total could vary depending on the individual beneficiary’s circumstances and characteristics, experts said.

Those partial benefits are expected to last recipients about two weeks, some experts say, noting that the program could delay families in the event of a swift government shutdown.

“But it’s definitely very worrying because people won’t know when they can expect to get the rest of the money,” Dach said.

Most states phase in SNAP benefits, meaning some recipients get access at the beginning of the month and others in the following days or weeks. In turn, some recipients are likely to still keep their payments from October, while others may be forced to go without funds during the current delay, experts added.

Can states make up for the loss of federal SNAP funding?

Experts question the ability and state governments or charities to make up for the complete lack of SNAP benefits. But some states, such as Virginia, have pledged to provide matching subsidies.

“By law, states may be allowed to make up for lost funds, but they have no guarantee that they will be reimbursed even after the government reopens,” Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University, told ABC News.

Georgetown’s Super said the financial burden of food stamp payments would be significant for state governments.

“Fiscally, it’s a lot of money, and I think it’s going to be difficult for states to do that,” Super said. “And from an operational standpoint, that’s going to require a variety of steps that some states are probably better equipped to do than others.”

Source: abcnews.go.com