WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans could miss out on food benefits next month because of the ongoing government shutdown and the standoff in Congress.
States have begun warning beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that November benefits won’t be loaded on SNAP debit cards as a result of the funding impasse.
Louisiana, for instance, issued a flyer Wednesday to be placed in grocery stores warning SNAP cardholders next month’s benefits won’t show up unless Congress reopens the government.
“Due to the federal government shutdown in Washington, D.C., SNAP benefits will not be uploaded to your card for November 2025,” the notice says. “Any remaining SNAP benefits on your card from previous months can still be used. SNAP benefit issuance will resume once the federal government reopens in Washington, D.C.”
More than 42 million people in 22 million households receive monthly SNAP benefits averaging about $350. The money can be used for food at grocery stores. Missing the benefits could harm not only the individual households, but also the broader economy as grocery stores and food producers lose out on as much as $8 billion per month.
The government shut down at the start of October after most Senate Democrats voted against a House-passed funding bill that would have kept the government running until mid-November. Democrats have insisted Republicans add funding to address the expiration of health insurance subsidies for 22 million Americans who are already receiving notices their premiums will skyrocket in January unless Congress acts.
Already, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been sent home, national parks have closed gates and air traffic controllers have worked without pay. The Donald Trump administration has taken legally questionable measures to maintain pay for active-duty troops and funding for a smaller nutrition program that serves pregnant women and new mothers, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funnels money to state SNAP administrators, says it can’t cover November.
“They do go away if there’s no deal by Nov. 1, at least under our current construct. We don’t have the funding,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said on NewsNation this week. “Half the states are shut down on SNAP right now.”
The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has argued that the USDA has enough funds for two-thirds of November’s benefit amount, so it should pay at least partial benefits.
“Speaking as a former OMB official, I know from experience that the federal government has the authority and the tools it needs during a shutdown to get these SNAP funds to families,” Sharon Parrott, the president of the Center on Budget and Policy, who previously served in the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, said in a statement. “Even at this late date, the professionals at the Department of Agriculture and in states can make this happen.”
Senate Democrats made a similar demand on Thursday, arguing in a letter to Rollins, “the USDA has several tools available which would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through or close to the end of November.”
A spokesperson for the USDA said Senate Democrats are approaching an inflection point: “Continue to hold out for health care for illegals or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.” (The “health care for illegals” line, a top Republican talking point, is wildly misleading.)
Republicans have highlighted the threat to SNAP in recent days. “Millions of American families are about to lose access to food assistance because Democrats are openly admitting to being afraid of their far-left base and refuse to reopen the government,” House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) said Thursday in an emailed statement.
But House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) predicted the administration would find the money for November’s SNAP benefit.
“At the end of the day, the administration, as they’ve done in other instances, will realize that they’re being held accountable for having shut down the government, they’re being held accountable for inflicting pain on the American people, and they will back away from their threats to starve the American people,” Jeffries told HuffPost on Thursday.
With no resolution to the shutdown in sight, lawmakers are increasingly talking about piecemeal legislation to lessen the shutdown’s impacts, such as a bill to pay certain federal workers. Democrats blocked a GOP measure doing so on Thursday, however, arguing that it would give the Trump administration too much power to decide which workers go without pay. They sought to pass a bill that would pay all federal workers instead, but the GOP blocked it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), meanwhile, has rejected the idea of bringing the House back into session before the Senate passes the original funding bill and reopens the government, but he sounded open to doing a SNAP bill on Thursday.
“If the Senate passes the bill, then the House will address that,” Johnson said in response to a question from HuffPost. “We have lots of SNAP recipients in our state, as we do in many others. You’re talking about, I think, it’s 42 or 43 million Americans rely upon that vital service, and it’s unconscionable that they would be held at bay and held as leverage on this.”
Senate Republicans are considering a vote as early as next week on standalone legislation to pay SNAP benefits offered by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). Their goal is to put pressure on more Democrats by targeting a program they’ve long championed as benefiting millions of Americans.
“Let’s not allow millions of families who need help with food to not be able to buy food for their kids,” Hawley told reporters of his bill on Thursday.
It’s unclear how Democrats will handle that bill if it comes to the floor. But several Democratic senators told HuffPost that lapsed SNAP benefits would hurt Republican communities just as hard as Democratic ones ― and that it’s yet another reason why Trump ought to agree to get off the sidelines and negotiate with them to end the shutdown.
“It’s going to put pressure on Republicans because, in a place like Southwest Virginia that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump, if you’re going to have your health care costs double or triple, if you got your health care and your food benefits taken away, that’s going to overwhelm the food banks and overwhelm the emergency rooms,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told HuffPost.
But Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has repeatedly broken from his party by voting to reopen the government without getting concessions from the Trump administration, said that Democrats are facing a “Sophie’s Choice” on choosing to fight for SNAP beneficiaries or people enrolled in Obamacare.
“That’s a double whammy for people,” Fetterman said. “Keeping it shut down, they’re going to get neither of these things, and that’s reckless.”