New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said federal food assistance benefits would resume starting on Sunday, but state officials have not said whether a Supreme Court decision late Friday would affect those payments.
The uncertainty comes as several other states, including New Jersey, began issuing payments after nearly a week-long pause and the first ever in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s history. Popularly known as "food stamps," the program provides funding support for families on the brink of starvation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture released money to states on Friday as required by a federal judge’s order, according to a memo the agency sent Gothamist.
But just hours after Hochul told New Yorkers that food assistance would resume on Sunday, the Supreme Court appeared to pause any release of the funds.
In a late-night emergency administrative stay Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily halted a lower-court order that had required the administration to restore the SNAP program, seemingly leaving millions of New Yorkers in limbo.
It was unclear Saturday morning whether New York would still resume the program this weekend. After the emergency stay came down, Hochul tweeted “Trump fought for this. He doesn’t care if millions of Americans go hungry.” But she didn't say whether New York would foot the bill in the meantime and her office did not immediately respond to questions Saturday.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's administration, though, said Saturday it had already distributed funds to the state's 800,000 SNAP recipients' EBT cards for November. It was unclear if the state would be able to draw on federal funding beyond that.
Earlier in the week, the Trump administration had asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to block the lower court’s order requiring the release of SNAP funds. The appeals court said it would review the request but declined to pause the order while it considered the case. That’s when Justice Brown stepped in and issued a temporary pause herself, giving the appeals court time to decide whether to grant a longer delay during the appeal.
The USDA blamed Senate Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown in a statement Thursday.
Hochul said the Trump administration put New Yorkers through “chaos and confusion” after it froze funding for SNAP Nov. 1, due to the government shutdown.
About 3 million residents in New York rely on SNAP and about 800,000 New Jerseyans do as well.
This story has been updated to reflect the Supreme Court's decision to temporarily halt SNAP funding.
