Politics
Judges order USDA to restart SNAP funding, but hungry families won’t get immediate relief
Two federal judges told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in separate rulings Friday that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to provide federal food assistance to poor American families despite the federal shutdown, but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.
Both Obama-appointed judges rejected Trump administration arguments that more than $5 billion in USDA contingency funds could not legally be tapped to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for nearly 42 million people — about 1 in 8 Americans — while the federal government remains closed. But both also left unclear how exactly the relief should be provided, or when it will arrive for millions of families set to lose benefits starting Saturday.
The two rulings came almost simultaneously Friday.
In Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani stopped short of granting California and a coalition of 24 other Democrat-led states a temporary restraining order they had requested. But she ruled that the states were likely to succeed in their arguments that the USDA’s total shutoff of SNAP benefits — despite having billions in emergency contingency funds on hand — was unlawful.
Talwani gave USDA until Monday to tell her whether they would authorize “only reduced SNAP benefits” using the contingency funding — which would not cover the total $8.5 billion to $9 billion needed for all November benefits, according to the USDA — or would authorize “full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and additional available funds.”
Separately, in Rhode Island, U.S. District Judge John McConnell granted a temporary restraining order requested by nonprofit organizations, ruling from the bench that SNAP must be funded with at least the contingency funds “as soon as possible,” and requesting an update on progress by Monday.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta — whose office helped bring the states’ lawsuit — praised the decisions of the two courts, saying SNAP benefits “provide an essential hunger safety net” to 5.5 million Californians. “Simply put, the stakes could not be higher.”
Skye Perryman, president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, which represented the nonprofit groups, said the ruling in that case “affirms what both the law and basic decency require” and “protects millions of families, seniors, and veterans from being used as leverage in a political fight.”
It was not clear if the administration would appeal the rulings. President Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform that he does not want Americans to go hungry and that he had instructed the government’s lawyers “to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” as it would be his “HONOR” to provide the funding with “appropriate legal direction by the Court.”
“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” Trump wrote, before urging SNAP recipients to call Democrats in Congress and demand they end the shutdown.
While the orders were a win for states and the nation’s SNAP recipients, they do not mean that all those recipients will be spared a lapse in their food aid, state officials stressed. State and local food banks continued scrambling to prepare for a deluge of need starting Saturday.
Asked Thursday if a ruling in the states’ favor would mean SNAP funds would be immediately loaded onto CalFresh and other benefits cards, Bonta said “the answer is no, unfortunately.”
“Our best estimates are that [SNAP benefit] cards could be loaded and used in about a week,” he said, calling that lag “problematic.”
“There could be about a week where people are hungry and need food,” he said. For new applicants to the program, he said, it could take even longer.
The rulings came as the now monthlong shutdown continued Friday with no immediate end in sight.
They also came after Trump called Thursday for the Senate to end the shutdown by first ending the filibuster, a longstanding rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections to legislation. The rule has traditionally been favored by lawmakers as a means of blocking particularly partisan measures, and is currently being used by Democrats to resist the will of the current 53-seat Republican majority.
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Chief Executive Michael Flood, standing alongside Bonta as members of the California National Guard worked behind them stuffing food boxes Thursday, said his organization was preparing for massive weekend lines, similar to those seen during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a disaster type of situation,” Flood said.
“5.5 million Californians, 1.5 million children and adults in L.A. County alone, will be left high and dry — illegally so, unnecessarily so, in a way that is morally bankrupt,” Bonta said.
Bonta blamed the shutdown on Trump and his administration, and said the USDA broke the law by not tapping its contingency funds to continue payments.
Bonta said SNAP benefits have never been disrupted during previous federal government shutdowns, and should never have been disrupted during this shutdown, either.
“That was avoidable,” he said. “Trump created this problem.”
The Trump administration has blamed the shutdown and the looming disruption to SNAP benefits entirely on Democrats in Congress, who have blocked short-term spending measures to restart the government and fund SNAP. Democrats are holding out to pressure Republicans into rescinding massive cuts to subsidies that help millions of Americans afford health insurance.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, previously told The Times that Democrats should be the ones getting asked “when the shutdown will end,” because “they are the ones who have decided to shut down the government so they can use working Americans and SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ to pursue their radical left wing agenda.”
“Americans are suffering because of Democrats,” Jackson said.
In their opposition to the states’ request for a temporary restraining order requiring the disbursement of funds, attorneys for the USDA argued that using emergency funds to cover November SNAP benefits would deplete funds meant to provide “critical support in the event of natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes,” and could actually cause more disruption to benefits down the line.
They wrote that SNAP requires between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month, and the USDA’s contingency fund has only about $5.25 billion, meaning it could not fully fund November benefits even if it did release contingency funding. Meanwhile, “a partial payment has never been made — and for good reason,” because it would force every state to recalculate benefits for recipients and then recalibrate their systems to provide the new amounts, they wrote.
That “would take weeks, if it can be done at all,” and would then have to be undone in order to issue December benefits at normal levels, assuming the shutdown would have lifted by then, they wrote.
Simply pausing the benefits to immediately be reissued whenever the shutdown ends is the smarter and less disruptive course of action, they argued.
In addition to suing the administration, California and its leaders have been rushing to ensure that hungry families have something to eat in coming days. Gov. Gavin Newsom directed $80 million to food banks to stock up on provisions, and activated the National Guard to help package food for those who need it.
Counties have also been working to offset the need, including by directing additional funding to food banks and other resource centers and asking partners in the private sector to assist.
Dozens of organizations in California have written to Newsom calling on him to use state funds to fully cover the missing federal benefits, in order to prevent “a crisis of unthinkable magnitude,” but Newsom has suggested that is not possible given the scale of funding withheld.
SNAP served about 41.7 million people in 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion, according to the USDA. Children and older people accounted for more than 63% of California recipients.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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It is said that everyone’s a critic.
But when it comes to the government shutdown, everyone’s an oracle.
Especially when trying to determine when it might end.
“[Democrats] are waiting to elect [Zohran] Mamdani, the communist, soon-to-be mayor of New York. And then I believe things will go back into business as normal,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., on FOX Business. “If we don’t reopen this week, then I believe it’ll happen at some time shortly before Thanksgiving.”
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN KNOWLEDGE: GAMING OUT ITS POTENTIAL END
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., also offered her own prediction.
“I believe that this week could be the week,” said Capito on FOX Business.
But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wasn’t so sure.
“I don’t know what the predictions are based on,” said Cornyn on Fox. “We keep looking for some rational behavior on the part of the Democrats who shut down the government. But it was a dumb idea to start with. And it hasn’t gotten any better since.”
Everyone is now searching for a flicker of hope. A glimmer of reason as to why the government shutdown won’t deepen.
The Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol is seen on day 23 of the government shutdown, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
But all this week represents is another opportunity. There have been multiple inflection points along the way, but nothing has quite yielded the same opportunity to end the shutdown as this week.
Yes, emergency food aid for the nation’s neediest expired on Saturday. Air traffic is growing worse by the hour. Healthcare premiums formally spiked on Saturday – which is why Democrats balked at funding the government in the first place.
But none of those developments have truly forced the sides back to the negotiating table. That’s why some have settled on Tuesday’s elections as a potential turning point.
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Mamdani is the odds-on favorite to become the next mayor of New York City. Republicans are now projecting that the election is why the Democrats haven’t folded on government funding. They believe that certain election results – a win by the progressive Mamdani in New York coupled with what Republicans hope are losses by the moderate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., running for Virginia governor and Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., running for New Jersey governor – will prod Democrats into action. Republicans believe such results will compel Democrats to see their party as out of touch.
“I hope the election tomorrow is a change. A sea change in all this,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “I hope that after everybody votes and they go in their room and they make the calculation that, well, ‘maybe, maybe we won’t have to hold that line anymore.’”
Republicans know the shutdown will end eventually. But if it ends soon, they want to shape the narrative that “Democrats caved because of the election results.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., expressed hope that Tuesday’s elections will be “a change.” (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Consider that Republicans have been forecasting the shutdown’s end for five weeks now.
“The cracks started to appear in the Democrat base,” proclaimed Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on October 1.
Republicans believed Democrats would cave in a matter of days once the shutdown started.
It never happened.
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The GOP then argued that Democrats were merely holding out until the “No Kings” rallies on October 19 concluded — that Democrats would have “shown they were fighting” by then.
“They won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally,” forecast Johnson on Fox on October 10.
There was nothing of the sort.
Then the GOP amended its argument that Democrats were on the verge of giving in because federal workers were missing paychecks. Especially air traffic controllers.
“We’re getting to where the consequences of this are very real,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Fox on October 23.
That theory also fizzled.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that “we’re getting to where the consequences of this are very real.” (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Republicans then pinned their hopes on the next missed paycheck, coupled with flight delays, expiring SNAP benefits, and spiking health premiums on November 1.
“The Democrats will collapse entirely,” predicted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Fox over the weekend.
But nothing changed.
“We will not support a partisan, Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of the American people,” proclaimed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “That’s been our position. Week after week after week – and it will continue to be our position.”
Say what you will about the Democrats’ strategy. But they haven’t folded.
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Keep in mind that Republicans have tried in vain to convince Senate Democrats since mid-September to accept a GOP spending plan which would only fund the government through November 21.
“It is now becoming close to a moot issue,” said Cornyn. “What are they going to do after, I don’t know.”
Thune proclaimed that the 21st is now a date which is “lost.”
Yours truly asked House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., what was the “drop-dead date” for Republicans to make another play call.
“With November 21st out there, it’s not a lot [of] time to resolve differences,” replied Scalise.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was asked about the “drop-dead date” for another play call by his party. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There’s now chatter about Republicans crafting another short-term spending bill through January.
“The longer sort of runway, the better,” said Thune. “I’m certainly listening to our colleagues and trying to figure out kind of where that landing spot would be.”
But there’s no guarantee either chamber could pass such a measure — especially if Democrats’ core demands remain unaddressed.
In his daily prayer to open the Senate session, Senate Chaplain Barry Black implied that the lawmakers needed help solving the crisis – simply because they were no closer to a resolution than they were in late September.
“Inspire our lawmakers to unite in putting out the fire of this government shutdown that has already burned far more than anticipated,” prayed Black.
It’s too unpredictable to make a sound prediction about when the shutdown will end. But if you predict enough things, you’ll eventually get something right.
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So how about this prediction:
The shutdown will end.
Eventually.
And that’s truly the only safe prediction anyone can make right now.
Millions of YouTube TV subscribers will likely miss “Monday Night Football” on ESPN and ABC News’ election day coverage as the blackout of Walt Disney-owned channels stretches into a second week.
“Monday Night Football” features the Dallas Cowboys battling the Arizona Cardinals. In addition, several important political contests are on Tuesday ballots, including the New York City mayor’s election, gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, and California’s Proposition 50 to decide whether officials can redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats.
Disney on Monday sought a temporary thaw in tensions with Google Inc. after the two sides failed last week to strike a new distribution contract covering Disney’s television channels on Google’s YouTube TV.
“Despite the impasse that led to the current blackout, we have asked YouTube TV to restore ABC for Election Day so subscribers have access to the information they rely on,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “We believe in putting the public interest first and hope YouTube TV will take this small step for their customers while we continue to work toward a fair agreement.”
Google’s YouTube declined the offer.
“We agree that the right priority here is to give customers what they want,” the tech giant wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, your proposal would permit us to return Disney’s ABC stations only for a day and will cause customer confusion among those who may briefly see ABC on YouTube TV only to lose it again shortly after.”
More than 10 million YouTube TV customers lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels late Thursday after a collapse in negotiations over distribution fees for Disney channels, causing one of the largest recent blackouts in the television industry.
The two TV giants wrangled for weeks over how much Google must pay to carry Disney’s channels, including FX, Disney Jr. and National Geographic. YouTube TV — now one of the largest pay-TV services in the U.S. — has balked at Disney’s price demands, leading to the outage.
YouTube TV does not have the legal right to distribute Disney’s networks after its last distribution agreement expired. In its post, YouTube offered another option:
“We propose immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate,” YouTube said. “Those are the channels that people want.”
YouTube has said that should the outage stretch for “an extended period,” it would offer its subscribers a $20 credit.
Spanish-language TelevisaUnivision-owned channels were knocked off YouTube TV in a separate dispute that has lasted more than a month. Televisa has appealed to high-level political officials, including President Trump and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
Last year, after Disney-owned channels went dark on DirecTV in a separate carriage fee dispute, Disney offered to make available to DirecTV subscribers its ABC coverage of the sole presidential debate between President Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
DirecTV viewed ABC’s offer as something of a stunt, noting the debate would be streamed. DirecTV countered by asking Disney to instead make all of its channels available.
That fee dispute resulted in a 13-day blackout on DirecTV.
ABC’s “World News Tonight With David Muir” is one of television’s highest rated programs. However, YouTube noted there were other options for election results.
“Disney can continue to livestream news information on the ABC News YouTube page,” YouTube said. “Its ABC local stations can also do so on their YouTube pages.”
Heightened tensions in the television industry have led to numerous blackouts.
In 2023, Disney and Charter Communications were unable to iron out a new contract by their deadline, resulting in a 10-day blackout of Disney channels on Charter’s Spectrum service. A decade earlier, Time Warner Cable subscribers went nearly a month without CBS-owned channels.
Programming companies, including Disney, have asked for higher fees for their channels to help offset the increased cost of sports programming, including NFL and NBA contracts. But pay-TV providers, including YouTube have pushed back, attempting to draw a line to slow their customers’ ever-increasing monthly bills.
More than 40 million pay-TV customer homes have cut the cord over the last decade, according to industry data. Many have switched to smaller streaming packages. YouTube TV also benefited by attracting disaffected customers from DirecTV, Charter Spectrum and Comcast. YouTube TV is now the nation’s third-largest TV channel distributor.
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President Donald Trump said he believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids “haven’t gone far enough” when asked about the federal agency’s tactics that have sparked protests and lawsuits.
Trump sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who asked the president about videos of an ICE agent shoving a woman to the floor at an immigration courthouse, federal agents deploying tear gas in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood and smashing car windows.
“Have some of these raids gone too far?” O’Donnell asked.
“No. I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the – by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump replied.
Protests and confrontations between immigration rights supporters and law enforcement are seen taking place in Paramount, California, and downtown Los Angeles, on June 7, 2025, following recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security agents. (Taurat Hossain/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell pressed.
“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown outta their countries because they were, you know, criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons. Many of them are people from frankly mental institutions,” he claimed. “I feel badly about that, but they’re released from insane asylums. You know why? Because they’re killers.”
The Trump administration has carried out immigration raids on major American cities to carry out Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conduct an arrest in Chicago, Illinois, on January 26, 2025. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS)
The White House has repeatedly said federal agents are targeting criminal illegal migrants who are the “worst of the worst.”
Fox News previously reported on a leadership shakeup at ICE amid growing friction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over deportation tactics and priorities.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, senior adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino have pushed for a broader and more aggressive immigration enforcement approach, targeting anyone in the U.S. illegally to boost deportation numbers.
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Bovino and other DHS and ICE officials were named in a civil rights lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois in early October and accused of using unlawful force to suppress peaceful protests and press activity around the Broadview ICE facility in Illinois.
It was filed by a coalition of journalists, media organizations and individual protesters.
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Trump told CBS News he believes his immigration mission will be complete once “many” of roughly 25 million people are deported.
“Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or – I believe I’m much closer to the right number,” he said. “Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.”
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