The ongoing federal government shutdown could affect the flow of food assistance benefits, specifically the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
About 42 million low-income Americans rely on the food stamp program, but if the shutdown continues into November, officials from The U.S. Department of Agriculture warns that there will not be enough funding. Due to the shutdown, agencies like the Department of Agriculture cannot issue new funds because the legal authority to do so has expired.
However, funding can be restored when Congress passes a continuing resolution or a temporary budget.
States were able to issue funds for October because the department had allocated them before the Oct. 1 shutdown, but without new appropriations, there may not be enough to cover November benefits.
“We’re going to run out of money in two weeks,” Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, told White House reporters. “So you’re talking about millions and millions of vulnerable families, of hungry families that are not going to have access to these programs because of this shutdown.”
Department of Agriculture officials have notified states to prepare for potential delays in November SNAP payments until further notice. SNAP has a contingency fund of about $6 billion reserved for any unexpected expenses, but this falls short of the $8 billion needed to cover November benefits, if the shutdown continues.
Without congressional action, SNAP recipients could face not only significant delays, but also decreased benefits.
“We can’t let households who need help purchasing food become another casualty of this shutdown,” Ty Jones Cox, the vice president of food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities told CNN.
Acting director of SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center Gina Plata-Nino pointed out that the potential decrease in SNAP benefits comes as Thanksgiving approaches.
For millions of low-income households, SNAP benefits help families afford meals when food prices rise and food pantries struggle to meet increasing demand, especially during the holiday season.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, has received $300 million in unspent tariff revenue from the Trump administration in October to help the program operate during the shutdown.
However, an official from the Department of Agriculture told CNN that this still will not be enough to cover the costs for the program in November.“We welcome efforts to keep WIC afloat during the shutdown, but families need long-term stability, not short-term uncertainty,” National WIC Association’s CEO Georgia Machell said in a press release.
