By Michael P. Norton, State House News Service
Attorney General Andrea Campbell on Friday night expressed disappointment that the U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s request to suspend a lower court’s order compelling them to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The high court decision came a few hours after Gov. Maura Healey on Friday afternoon cited a lower court ruling and ordered the distribution of benefits, announcing that her administration was directing “full SNAP benefits to be paid and expects recipients to start receiving their delayed benefits as early as” Saturday.
By Sunday, as talks percolated in Washington about a potential deal to reopen the federal government, both Campbell and Healey were promising more SNAP litigation and objecting to reports that the Trump administration wants to claw back payments sent by states to food aid recipients.
“Now that Massachusetts has issued full benefits – something the federal government should have done in the first place – the President is trying to claw back those resources from children, elderly, veterans, and people with disabilities who desperately need them,” Campbell said. “My office will not let this administration continue to use Massachusetts residents’ lives as a political bargaining chip. This chaos and confusion must stop. We’ll see them in Court.”
Said Healey, “If President Trump wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court. Massachusetts residents with funds on their cards should continue to spend it on food. These funds were processed in accordance with guidance we received from the Trump Administration and a lower court order, and they were processed before the Supreme Court order on Friday night. We will continue to work with Attorney General Campbell to make sure everyone gets the full benefits they are owed. President Trump should be focusing on reopening the government that he controls instead of repeatedly fighting to take away food from American families.”
In an update memo on Saturday, the USDA”s Patrick Penn wrote, “To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025 … Per 7 CFR 271.7(h), failure to comply with this memorandum may result in USDA taking various actions, including cancellation of the Federal share of State administrative costs and holding States liable for any overissuances that result from the noncompliance.”
Connecticut Gov. Governor Ned Lamont announced over the weekend that full SNAP benefits for November had been loaded onto the EBT cards of SNAP recipients in that state as of Saturday afternoon.
A Project Bread representative on Saturday called the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling “the latest in a series of whiplash-inducing announcements” that are contributing to “panic and confusion” among SNAP households.
Campbell plans to travel Chelsea at 9:30 a.m. Monday to visits staff at La Colaborativa and provide an update on her office’s ongoing SNAP litigation. Following a media availability, she plans to assist the nonprofit in distributing food to an age-restricted public housing building near La Colaborativa’s 63 Sixth Street office.
At noon Monday, Healey plans a media event in her office’s reception room to talk about SNAP and call for the extension of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that are set to expire soon under current law.
