By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Arizona food stamp recipients apparently will not be getting full benefits as soon as this weekend for November.
Late Friday the U.S. Supreme court temporarily blocked an order by U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to immediately fund the cost of all 42 million Americans -- and about 900,000 in Arizona -- getting the monthly payments they expect.
In a brief unsigned order, the justices said they want time for an appellate court to consider a claim by the Trump administration that U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell acted illegally.
He said the USDA must use not just the approximately $5.3 billion it has in contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program but take the balance of what is needed from other programs, including one that funds school meals. The total cost of full benefits is between $8.5 million and $9 million.
All this comes just hours after Gov. Katie Hobbs, in a social media post, said benefits are on the way.
"Arizonans have started receiving their SNAP benefits in full,'' she wrote. "Over the coming days, SNAP recipients should see their November benefits loaded onto their card.''
But Christian Slater, the governor's press aide, said Friday evening he has no details of how many Arizonans have actually had the dollars for loaded onto their Electronic Benefit Transfer cards or how many got full payments. The average monthly payment to Arizona households is $358.
This means another delay for Arizonans who have been waiting for those benefits for a week.
How long is unclear.
In its order Friday night, the justices said the First Circuit Court of Appeals has said it intends to issue its own order on whether to stay full benefits "as quickly as possible.'' And then they gave themselves another 48 hours to consider whatever the appellate court rules.
The latest developments could leave Arizona recipients scrambling to find out whether they have money to spend this month on groceries and, if so, how much.
The Department of Economic Security maintains a "cardholder portal'' which has current balances as well as a record of transactions. There also is a mobile app available.
DES says that recipients also can check their balances by using the EBT card at an ATM or point-of-sale terminal that accepts EBT. But the agency warns that a fee may apply.
All this comes amid a flurry of activity, including court rulings and often-conflicting statements from the federal government, in the wake of the government shutdown and, more to the point, the failure of Congress to approve funding for the SNAP program beyond Oct. 31.
That led to a pair of lawsuits, with federal judges in two jurisdictions saying that, at the very least, USDA needed to tap its contingency account. That would fund only about two thirds of typical benefits.
But when the administration balked, McConnell then went a step farther.
In his Thursday order, he said that the president showed "intent to defy a court order'' after Trump put up a social media post saying that the benefits would remain frozen until the government reopened.
The White House subsequently walked back those comments. But McConnell said that, in any case, the administration, in refusing to fully fund the program, "failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer.''
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a notice to state agencies saying that its Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services division is "working toward implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances'' to comply with the order McConnell had issued on Thursday. The agency said it intended to complete the processes that day.
But that didn't stop Trump from appealing the order. And when he couldn't get an immediate delay from the court of appeals, he went to the Supreme Court.
In filings with the high court, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the government has already exhausted its contingency funds.
"But that will only be enough to cover partial payments for the month of November,'' he said.
"Such a funding lapse is a crisis,'' Sauer said. "But it is a crisis occasioned by congressional failure and one that can only be solved through congressional action.''
What McConnell has done, he said, is ordered USDA to shift funds from other "critical food-security programs'' like the National School Lunch Program, and do so immediately.
"That unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers,'' Sauer said. And he took a specific slap at McConnell.
"The court below took the current shutdown as effective license to declare a federal bankruptcy and appoint itself the trustee, charged with picking winners and loses among those seeking some part of the limited pool of remaining federal funds,'' Sauer wrote.
And there's something else.
Sauer told the justice that some states, relying on McConnell's order, already have requested that 100% of benefits be transferred, "trying to seize what they could of the agency's finite set of remaining funds, before any appeal could even be filed, and to the detriment of other states' allotments.''
There was no immediate response from Slater to the question of whether Arizona was one of those states.
The delay issued by the Supreme Court, at the very least, addresses the administration's concern that "once those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds.''
In a prepared statement before the Supreme Court issued its order, Hobbs took a swat at the president.
"It is shameful that the Trump administration delayed lifesaving food assistance payments to Arizonans for week,'' she said. "It shouldn't take a court order for politicians in Washington, D.C. to do the right thing for Arizona families.''
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