After Minnesota restores full SNAP benefits, Trump administration instructs states to "undo" funding
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig says lawyers are working to figure out how Minnesotans will be impacted after receiving an overnight letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture instructing states to "immediately undo any steps" that were taken to provide full SNAP benefits.
The news comes less than a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison made separate announcements that the state would issue full SNAP benefits for November.
"This is cruel. It's heartless on the part of the administration," Craig said in an interview with WCCO on Sunday.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families confirmed it issued full SNAP benefits on Friday and said it was "appalled" by the memo.
"Minnesota does not have any mechanism for taking money back from SNAP recipients," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement on Sunday. "We also believe it would be unjust to yank back these funds that are needed to feed families."
Craig says what will happen going forward is "uncertain."
"USDA has released conflicting guidance almost every day during the month of November, so I don't know the answer to that right now," Craig said when asked if the SNAP funding issued to EBT cards may be taken away. "But the fact that's even a possibility, again, is one of the cruelest things that this administration has done."
The Trump administration called the payments "unauthorized" and also threatened to impose financial penalties on states that did not comply with the new orders.
CBS News has reached out to the White House and the Department of Agriculture for additional comments on the new guidance.
On Friday, several other states began issuing full monthly SNAP benefits to people, a day after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide the funds. However, that same night, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily paused the judicial order to give an appeals court in Boston time to decide whether to issue a more lasting halt.
Initially, the Trump administration said it would not fund SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, for November due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Nearly 42 million Americans, including 440,000 Minnesotans, receive SNAP benefits for help buying groceries. The delay in payments has led to a surge in demand at food banks and pantries across the country.
In response, Walz late last month announced $4 million in emergency state funding to support food shelves around Minnesota. Friday, Hennepin County also approved $2 million for food banks and food shelves through the end of the year.
Jason Viana, executive director of The Open Door, a food pantry in Eagan, Minnesota, said the back-and-forth in court and the prolonged standstill in Congress are leaving families in limbo. He said his organization hasn't seen this many people come through their doors seeking help since the start of the pandemic.