For several years, persistent internet rumors have claimed U.S. Social Security payments were being renamed "Federal Benefit Payments." In November 2025, the rumor spread in lengthy Facebook posts describing the "rebrand" as undermining "the moral and financial contract between workers and the government."

The state and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are stepping up beginning today but the fight over SNAP continues during the federal shutdown.

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Gov. Janet Mills said the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) began distributing full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Monday, as the Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court in its push to keep full payments in the federal food aid program frozen during the U.

Healey explained SNAP funds arrive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Massachusetts connects those funds to a third-party vendor. That’s how, she said, full SNAP payments were put on electronic benefit cards. The first payout to eligible residents in November is complete with the next disbursement scheduled Nov. 14.

A weekend back-and-forth court battle over whether the Trump administration is required to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through November has escalated to the Supreme

Meanwhile, the shutdown impacts are mounting as SNAP funding ran dry over the weekend and flights are delayed around the country amid air traffic controller shortages. In a filing overnight, USDA informed a federal judge that it had initially miscalculated the SNAP benefits that would be paid out if all $4.