Two judges have ruled that the federal government is required to use an emergency fund to pay for SNAP food aid payments while the government is shut down.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had planned to freeze SNAP payments, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, The Associated Press reported.

The agency said it could not fund the payments because of the ongoing shutdown.

The rulings said that the emergency funds, which amount to billions of dollars, must be used to partially cover food stamps through the SNAP program, CNN reported.

It will not be enough to cover the full program.

SNAP costs about $8 billion a month across the country and serves about 1 in 8 Americans, according to the AP.

Attorneys general or governors from 25 states and the District of Columbia had taken President Donald Trump’s administration to court over the looming nonpayments.

The administration said that it could not touch the billions of dollars in the contingency fund, which the USDA had planned to distribute.

“There is no doubt that the $6 billion contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program’s operation.” US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said, accordign to CNN. “The shutdown of the government through funding doesn’t do away with SNAP, it just does away with the funding of it.”

Check back for more on this developing story.

©2025 Cox Media Group