A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute money owed to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients “as soon as possible,” just one day before funding for SNAP was set to expire.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge John McConnell came shortly after another federal judge in a separate case said the Trump administration’s plan to not pay SNAP benefits starting Nov. 1 because of the ongoing federal government shutdown was “illegal,” but stopped short of ordering the Trump administration to disperse the funds.
Ruling in favor of a group of cities and community organizations that sued over the cuts, McConnell said the USDA should fund SNAP using money from a contingency fund. But he added that if the department determines that the money in the contingency fund is insufficient, then the agency must use other funding sources to make those payments.
“There is no question that the $6 billion in contingency funds are appropriated funds that are undoubtedly necessary to carry out the operation of the program,” McConnell said in his oral ruling. “Shutting down the government through funding does not eliminate SNAP. It simply eliminates its funding. There could be no greater need than the blanket ban on funding for program operations.”
McConnell added: “There’s no doubt, and it’s out of the question, that irreparable harm will begin to occur if it hasn’t already happened with the terror that has been caused to some people about the availability of funds for food for their family.”
McConnell addressed the Trump administration’s argument that contingency funds might be needed for other reasons in the near future, such as after a hypothetical hurricane.
“It is clear that compared to the millions of people who will be left without food funds versus the agency’s desire not to use contingency funds in the event of a hurricane need, the balance of those actions clearly falls on the side of ensuring that people are fed,” the judge said.
McConnell asked the administration for an update on SNAP funding by Monday at 12 p.m. ET.
NBC News has reached out to the White House, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the USDA for comment.
Democracy Forward, a progressive legal advocacy group that represented the plaintiffs, applauded the ruling.
“Today’s decision affirms what both the law and basic decency demand: the Trump-Vance administration must use its power to support the people of America, not harm them,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement. “The court’s ruling protects millions of families, seniors, and veterans from being used as leverage in a political fight and upholds the principle that no one in America should go hungry.”
Perryman’s group represented an array of plaintiffs, including local municipalities, charitable and religious nonprofit organizations, and business and labor groups in the Rhode Island lawsuit.
In the statement, Perryman added that his group is “honored to represent a coalition that refused to accept hunger as a cruel political pressure tactic, and we will continue to fight to ensure our institutions serve people with integrity, compassion and accountability.”
In a separate ruling, a federal judge in Boston said Friday that she wants more briefings before deciding whether the Agriculture Department has to use emergency funds to continue SNAP benefits for millions of Americans after Democratic leaders sued the agency.
“The plaintiffs have standing to bring this action and are likely to succeed in their claim that the defendants’ suspension of SNAP benefits is unlawful, Judge Indira Talwani wrote in her ruling.
“Where that suspension of benefits was based on a misinterpretation of relevant statutory provisions, the court will allow defendants to consider whether to authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November and report to the court no later than Monday, November 3, 2025,” he wrote.
Talwani, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, said Thursday that the government can’t simply stop benefits because it can’t afford to cover the program.
Talwani said he wants to hear from the administration by Monday, Nov. 3, 2025.
On Tuesday, the attorneys general of 22 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Kansas, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that it is legally obligated to continue providing SNAP benefits during the government shutdown as long as the USDA has the funds. They asked the judge to force the agency to use contingency funds appropriated by Congress.
The lawsuit sought a temporary restraining order that would require the agency to deliver SNAP benefits through November in their states.
The USDA had said in a message posted on its website that benefits will not be issued to EBT cards as expected on November 1. Up to 42 million Americans depend on the program.
Earlier on Thursday, before the rulings were handed down in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, President Donald Trump blamed Senate Democrats for the lack of funding for SNAP, saying they could vote to end the current federal government shutdown if they wanted to fund SNAP.
“All the Democrats have to do is say, ‘Let’s go.’ I mean, you know, they don’t have to do anything. They have to do it…all they have to do is say, ‘the government is open,'” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Florida.
