Due to a lack of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, at least half of all states plan to cut off their major food aid efforts on November 1 if the government shutdown continues.
States have been drawing on their own funds to keep their food aid programs going, but 25 states told Politico that they are running out of options and will close their programs in a bit more than a week.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told reporters that states cannot possibly match the level of funding provided by the federal government as she announced that her state would suspend its food aid next month. “Donald Trump is the first president in U.S. history to cut off SNAP benefits to people in America,” Healey, a Democrat, said. “And that affects millions and millions of people in America and certainly in Massachusetts.”
The federal government would reportedly need to provide about $9 billion in funding to keep state food aid programs operating in November. “We just can’t do it without the government being open,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday. “By November 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.”
Roughly 42 million people in 22 million households receive SNAP benefits each month, with an average monthly benefit of about $188 per household. In fiscal year 2024, the federal government spent nearly $100 billion on the program.
Source of pressure? Some lawmakers are hoping that the prospect of losing such a major aid program will push Congress to make a deal to fund the government, or at least some key programs. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week that the impending funding cliff would not cause him to change his approach, though he hoped it would change some minds across the aisle. “It should change Republicans’ calculus, that they should sit down and negotiate — negotiate a way to address this crisis,” Schumer said.
Republicans, though, continue to blame Democrats for the shutdown and all of its ill effects. “The shutdown is Democrat performance art — the audience starves while the elitist critics applaud,” one unnamed White House official said, per Politico.
The suspension of food aid, though, will hit supporters of both parties, potentially affecting millions in both blue states and red states. California has 4.5 million SNAP beneficiaries facing a loss of aid, but 800,000 people in Louisiana, which has one of the highest SNAP participation rates, could also lose out.