WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has admitted it made a mistake in its calculation of how much to cut food benefits this month because of the government shutdown.
In new guidance to state agencies that distribute food benefits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would aim to reduce maximum benefits by only 35% instead of an earlier plan to cut them by 50%.
“The maximum allotments are being reduced by 35 percent instead of 50 percent, so that the maximum allotments for November 2025 will be 65 percent of the typical maximum allotments,” the USDA said in a memo accompanying the new guidance.
More than 42 million people in 22 million households receive benefits each month. Already, November benefits have been delayed for millions.
In a statement, the USDA said it found more money in its rainy day fund.
“Further analysis found more room in the contingency,” a spokesperson said. “All of this would be solved if Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government.”
The Trump administration’s original plan was not to pay any SNAP benefits for November in an effort to increase pressure on Senate Democrats to vote for a government funding bill that would end the shutdown. So far, it hasn’t worked, as Democrats have remained adamant any funding bill extend health insurance subsidies that will expire soon.
State governments led by Democrats and hunger relief organizations sued, and two federal courts ordered the administration to at least tap a contingency fund and pay partial benefits for November. Since the fund contains less than the $8 or $9 billion needed to cover a full monthly allotment, the USDA said it would pay half.
Then, on Wednesday, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal D.C. think tank staffed with experts on the inner workings of SNAP, pointed out the government’s guidance to states would actually result in people receiving much less than advertised, with more than a million households receiving no benefits at all.
The plaintiffs in the court case immediately filed a brief on Wednesday pointing to the Center on Budget’s analysis, demanding the court order the administration to pay full benefits instead of giving the government “yet another chance to go back to the drawing board” and make another screwup on partial benefits.
In a court filing on Wednesday evening, the administration claimed it “realized this error and worked to issue new guidance and tables as soon as it was discovered,” and not because it had been called out by the plaintiffs. The USDA also argued it can’t pay full benefits because doing so would endanger funding for child nutrition programs such as school lunch.
“Indeed, there is nothing more USDA could do,” the government claimed in court.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump himself added to the chaos, declaring SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president didn’t mean what he’d said, and that the administration was, in fact, complying with court orders, which the government’s lawyers essentially admitted Wednesday the government had accidentally failed to do.
On Wednesday morning, Trump spoke as though nobody had told him what his own government had been up to.
“Millions of Americans are going to be without SNAP benefits,” Trump said at the White House. “We must get the government back open soon, and really immediately.”
HuffPost readers: Have you missed SNAP benefits because of the shutdown? Tell us about it ― email arthur@huffpost.com. Please include your phone number if you’re willing to be interviewed.