President Donald Trump’s administration is asking states to “cancel” all SNAP benefits paid out under a judge’s order last week, but the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked that decision, the latest move in a see-saw legal battle over the anti-hunger program used by 42 million Americans.
The request from the U.S. Department of Agriculture comes as more than 20 states have warned of “catastrophic operational disruption” if the Trump administration does not refund the SNAP benefits they approved before the Supreme Court put them on hold.
Nonprofits and a Democratic attorney general filed a lawsuit in November to force the Trump administration to maintain the program. Last week, they won a favorable ruling that will speed up payments to millions of people in several states.
But even before winning a stay of those rulings on Friday night on appeal to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration balked at reimbursing states for the first round of SNAP payments. Wisconsin, for example, loaded benefits onto cards for 700,000 residents but is expected to run out of money by Monday after the U.S. Treasury froze refunds to the state, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration warned in a lengthy statement Sunday.
The states warned that the lack of funds could leave vendors unpaid and lead to escalating legal claims. “Each state could face restitution claims totaling hundreds of millions of dollars,” the filing with the First Circuit Court of Appeals says.
The application concludes that such a situation “risks catastrophic disruption of each state’s operations, resulting in cascading harm to the population.”
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The filing arrived as the Department of Agriculture told states on Saturday that all payments made last week are considered “fraudulent.”
“To the extent that states submitted complete SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,” Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Patrick Penn said in a letter to state SNAP directors. “Therefore, states must immediately reverse the actions they have taken to fully pay SNAP benefits for November 2025.”
Evers quickly complied with the Trump administration’s request. “No,” the governor said in a statement.
“Following a valid court order, the state of Wisconsin legally loaded benefits onto cards, allowing approximately 700,000 Wisconsinites, including approximately 270,000 children, access to basic food and groceries,” Evers said. “Once we did so, the Trump administration assured Wisconsin and other states that it was working aggressively to implement full November SNAP benefits and would “complete the necessary processes to make the funds available.” They have failed to do so to date. ”
