Copyright Bangor Daily News
Mainers who receive food assistance through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program program will get their benefits after the Trump administration said it would comply with a recent federal court order to release funding. Gov. Janet Mills on Friday directed the state Department of Health and Human Services to pay full benefits to SNAP-eligible households in November. Those benefits had not been funded since Nov. 1, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the program had run out of funding as a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown. The program has reserve funds, but the Trump administration claimed it could not tap into them. On Friday, Mills cited multiple federal court rulings requiring the administration to release full funding for the program. The latest came on Thursday in an order from the District Court of Rhode Island. The USDA cited that ruling in a letter to state agency directors on Friday stating that the department “is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances” in compliance with the Rhode Island order. The USDA said it would complete the process to make funding for the SNAP program available “later today.” This year about 170,000 Mainers received benefits through SNAP every month, including more than 59,000 children and more than 40,000 older adults. More than a third of recipients have a disability. Nearly 75% of households that receive the benefits have at least one working adult. Mills said Maine DHHS will issue full November SNAP benefits starting Nov. 10 through Nov. 14, which is the state’s standard schedule for issuing benefits.
