Nearly 42 million people are set to lose food aid due to the second-longest U.S. government shutdown, as Democrats and Republicans in Congress continue to blame each other for a…
Half of States to Cut Off SNAP Benefits in November
Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported that “millions of low-income Americans will lose access to food aid on Nov. 1, when half of states plan to cut off benefits due to the government shutdown. Twenty-five states told POLITICO that they are issuing notices informing participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative — that they won’t receive checks next month.”
“Those states include California, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi and New Jersey. Others didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for publication,” Yarrow reported. “USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service recently told every state that they’d need to hold off on distributing benefits until further notice, according to multiple state agencies.”
“Nutrition programs like SNAP and another one serving low-income mothers and infants have been caught in the crossfire of lawmakers’ spending negotiations, with the shutdown now in its fourth week,” Yarrow reported. “States are scrambling to maintain the programs using money from their own coffers and emergency funding from the Trump administration, but that pot is rapidly decreasing.”
“The administration would have to find more than $8 billion to keep SNAP afloat if the shutdown continues,” Yarrow reported. “‘We just can’t do it without the government being open,’ said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a NewsNation interview Tuesday. ‘By Nov. 1, we are very hopeful this government reopens and we can begin moving that money out. But right now, half the states are shut down on SNAP.'”
Reuters’ Leah Douglas reported that “more than 41 million people participate in SNAP. Nearly 7 million people are also at risk of losing their November benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC.”
Advocates Say USDA Can Fund SNAP During Shutdown
Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies reported that “advocacy groups say Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins has the authority and some funding to keep paying Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits even as she insists Democrats first agree to reopen the government.”
“The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities released a statement from its president, Sharon Parrott, Thursday calling the Trump administration’s claim it can’t deliver November SNAP benefits during a shutdown ‘unequivocally false,'” Davies reported. “‘In fact, the administration is legally required to use contingency reserves — billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate that remain available during the shutdown — to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their grocery bill,’ Parrott said.”
“Those reserves currently total $6 billion. In an Oct. 20 analysis, CBPP said that after subtracting the $500 million needed each month for state administrative expenses in October and November, ‘more than $5 billion should remain for SNAP benefits. This is a substantial share of the approximately $8 billion needed for a full month of benefits,'” Davies reported.
Mayors Encourage USDA to Fund Benefits
Douglas reported that “a group representing mayors of more than 1,000 U.S. cities has urged the Agriculture Department to use emergency funds to pay for food assistance benefits threatened by the ongoing federal government shutdown.”
“The USDA should draw on its contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and use any other available resources to pay for November benefits, the U.S. Conference of Mayors said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday,” Douglas reported. “‘SNAP is not only a federal nutrition program – it is a critical local economic stabilizer,’ said the letter, signed by Matt Tuerk, the mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Tom Cochran, the organization’s CEO and executive director.”
“‘When benefits are delayed or reduced, city economies absorb the shock through increased food insecurity, higher demand on emergency food providers, and additional strain on municipal budgets and public health systems,’ the letter said,” according to Douglas’ reporting.
