Trump Admin. Eyes Wednesday For Resuming SNAP Funding As Government Shutdown Continues
on Nov 03, 2025
The Government Shutdown Is Poised To Become The Longest In History This Week
Just one day shy of matching the longest government shutdown in American history, pay for many federal employees has already ended, and funding for many government initiatives remains up in the air.
Among the most pressing of those programs in need of funding is SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps to over 41 million Americans.
On Monday, November 3, the 34th day of the government shutdown that began on October 1, President Donald Trump‘s administration sought clarification on how to fund SNAP during the shutdown.
This inquiry came after two federal judges determined on Friday, October 31, that funding for SNAP must continue using federal contingency monies.
In the afternoon of November 3, the Trump administration filed in court that it has complied with the order to fund SNAP, writing:
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is complying with the Court’s order and will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of SNAP contingency funds today by generating the table required for States to calculate the benefits available for each eligible household in that State.”
NBC News reported this amounts to $4.65 billion in contingency funds utilized to cover the program in November.
Citing built-in delays in distributing funds to SNAP recipients once funding for the program formally resumes, Trump posted on Truth Social on October 31, “I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT. Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”
Trump added, “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”
U.S. Treasurer Says SNAP Funding May Resume By Wednesday
SNAP’s funds are distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the states, and the two federal judges who ruled that SNAP funding must resume during the shutdown did so after 25 states and Washington, D.C., sued the Trump administration.
Speaking on CNN’s State of The Union on Sunday, November 2, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent pointed to Trump’s willingness to comply with this court order and that funding to SNAP may resume on Wednesday.
Still, he noted that the easiest way to ensure funding resumes would be for the Senate to approve reopening the government.
“The best way for SNAP benefits to get paid is for five Democrats to cross the aisle and reopen the government,” Bessent said.
Watch Scott Bessent’s full comments on SNAP funding amid the government shutdown, here:
RELATED: U.S. Government Remains In Shutdown
Trump Encourages Senate To Use “Nuclear Option” To End Shutdown
Altogether, the Senate has voted 13 times on a Republican-backed continuing resolution which will fund the government through November 21 to provide time for legislators to debate over budget specifics while keeping the government open.
With a 60-vote threshold for approval, each of these 13 attempts to approve the clean continuing resolution has failed.
Similarly, 13 votes on a Democrat-backed plan to expand healthcare subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, or Obama Care, have also failed.
However, there is potentially another path forward, but it’s a risky one for Republicans.
On Thursday, October 30, Trump requested that the Senate use the “nuclear option” to force the government to reopen.
The “nuclear option” would do away with the filibuster in the Senate, allowing for the 60-vote threshold to attain cloture on a resolution to be done away with. Instead, this would favor a simple majority, but many Republicans are opposed to using the “nuclear option.”
Were the “nuclear option” to be used, Republicans fear it would be used against the party’s values when it no longer holds the majority in the Senate. Next year’s midterm elections loom large over this concern.
In the morning of Monday, November 3, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, insisted that the House of Representatives had done its part in advancing a clean, stopgap continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but that the 60-vote threshold in the Senate was the only remaining hurdle.
“This is not a game, the solution is sitting right in front of you,” Johnson said at the November 3 press conference. “Pass the clean [continuing resolution], end this madness, and open the government.”
Speaking on the prospect of the Senate using the “nuclear option,” Johnson went on to list a few reasons why Senate Republicans shouldn’t use Trump’s proposed method.
Among those was the fear that Democrats would expand the Supreme Court to more than nine Justices and could push pro-abortion legislation.
The Senate did not vote on reopening the government on November 3, but a vote is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4.
Watch the House Republicans’ press conference on day 34 of the shutdown, here:
