By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Arizona could be in trouble -- and owe some money to the federal government -- over food stamp benefits being loaded to debit cards of recipients during the ongoing legal effort by the Trump administration to keep states from fully paying benefits during the government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture over the weekend demanded that states ``undo'' full benefits that were paid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a window between when a federal judge ordered full funding and a Supreme Court justice put a temporary pause on that order.
Late Sunday a federal appeals court left that order for full benefits in place. But a U.S. Supreme Court order ensures that nothing will change for at least 48 hours.
``The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting,'' wrong Judge Julie Rikleman of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.
But the Trump administration is expected to again seek U.S. Supreme Court review. And Congress could consider whether to fully fund SNAP as part of a proposal to end the government shutdown.
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday said she directed state officials to take "swift action'' to have the full November benefits to their cards. That followed a federal court ruling ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fully fund the benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs for all 42 million Americans who are eligible.
But late Saturday, an official from the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent a note to states noting that the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to delay that order to allow the agency to appeal. And Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary of the agency's Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, said all that is allowed at this point is for states to load the Electronic Benefit Transfer Card with 65% of what recipients would normally get -- what USDA can afford to pay with its contingency dollars.
"To the extent states sent full SNAP benefit payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized,'' he wrote. Penn also said that states "must immediately undo'' any steps taken to load full benefits onto those EBT cards.
And if states ignore his warning, Penn said they could face penalties, including "holding states liable for any overissuances that result from the noncompliance.''
That threat, however, was placed on hold Monday morning.
In a brief order, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a temporary restraining order blocking the USDA from enforcing its order that states undo any processes to issue full benefits or face any threats. And she has scheduled a hearing to hear arguments.
Christian Slater, the governor's press aide, said his boss did nothing wrong in directing that full benefits be loaded onto cards.
"It was done in response to guidance by the USDA,'' he said.
How clear was that "guidance,'' however, could end up being debated in court if the feds ask for their money back.
The agency did say in a memo Friday it was "working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances'' to comply with a federal court order. And it said that later that day the agency "will complete the processes necessary to make funds available'' so that states can send necessary files to the agencies that process EBT card payments.
But USDA officials said those steps -- ones they contend the states should have waited on -- were never taken after the agency appealed the ruling. And in an order late Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put McConnell's order on hold to allow a federal appeals court to review his ruling.
That in turn, led to the USDA memo on Saturday telling states that if they're providing more than the partial benefits that can be financed with the contingency dollars they can be held liable.
Slater said Arizona did nothing wrong in going ahead. He said the state was complying with the Friday order.
More to the point, Slater said there were no specific instructions telling states not to go ahead with loading the funds just yet.
He said he did not immediately know, however, how many of the nearly 900,000 Arizonans already have had November benefits loaded onto their cards and whether they are getting full benefits -- the average about $360 a month per household in Arizona -- or just the 65% that the Trump administration is no longer challenging. What is known is that food stamps are paid for entirely from federal dollars and that full benefits for Arizonans run about $160 million a month.
On Sunday Hobbs made it clear she was miffed about "more whiplash and confusion as the Trump administration demanded those benefits be retracted and callously challenged a court order that told them to do the right thing: pay SNAP benefits in full.''
Even if the Friday memo can be interpreted to tell states to proceed to load full benefits onto EBT cards, the administration is saying that governors should have known better and effectively were already on notice -- on Thursday, the day before Hobbs' directive -- that the legal fight wasn't over.
In a letter Sunday to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Laura Myron, an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, pointed out that the USDA already had filed a notice of appeal at about 5:15 p.m. on Thursday -- presumably East Coast time -- of McConnell's order for full benefits.
"To the extent that states decided to submit their files early -- knowing that defendants had appealed the court's injunction and intended to seek a stay, and in the face of direction to the contrary -- they are responsible for the consequences of that action,'' she wrote.
An aide Attorney General Kris Mayes said Arizona SNAP recipients who have money for November in their accounts should not be deterred by all the legal maneuverings from using their EBT cards
"So people are likely spending their benefits,'' said Richie Taylor. "Obviously, the attorney general believes if people have money on their cards and need to buy food for their families they should do that.''
And Taylor made it clear that Mayes, who is one of the lead plaintiffs in one of the two cases challenging efforts to deny or delay benefits, is not going to let the feds penalize the state.
"The attorney general will absolutely fight any attempt to hold states liable for the federal government's dereliction of their duties,'' he said.
Less clear is how moves on Sunday to finally getting the votes in the Senate to approve a continuing resolution to reopen the government will affect all this. That could turn on funding being restored for SNAP.
All this stems from two separate rulings by federal judges rejecting claims by the USDA that the shutdown of the government at the end of October and the failure of Congress to allocate more dollars for SNAP meant it need not make any November payments at all.
In both cases, the judges pointed out that the agency has more than $5 billion in a contingency fund. And they rejected the claim those dollars could not be used to fill the gap.
One of the judges, John McConnell Jr., gave the administration an option: Immediately use the contingency funds to begin payments immediately or fully fund benefits -- at a cost of up to $9 billion -- using other available dollars. And in the latter case, he would give USDA some additional time.
McConnell said the agency agreed to pursue the first option, with the administration apparently conceding that it is legally obligated to use at least those contingency dollars. But he said that never happened after the USDA concluded that there are "procedural difficulties'' to make partial SNAP payments which could "take anywhere from a few weeks to up to several months'' to send out.
What also apparently annoyed the judge was that, despite his initial order, President Trump later made a statement on social media that SNAP benefits "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before.''
"The court is not naive to the administration's true motivations,'' McConnell wrote, saying it is "clear that the administration is withholding full SNAP benefits for political purposes.
So McConnell took the partial benefits option off the table and ordered USDA to begin making full benefits available on Friday.
It was after that, and after the initial USDA note that it was "working'' towards implementing the court order, that Hobbs put out her own statement about full benefits.
"The Arizona Department of Economic Security approved the transmission of benefit payment files for Arizona SNAP recipients to receive full benefits from USDA for November,'' it read.
The appellate court as of Sunday had not yet set a date to consider the administration's appeal of McConnell's order.
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