Name: States warn SNAP benefits may stop amid govt shutdown
Uploaded: 2025-10-23T23:34:44.999Z
Duration: 4 min 19 s
Description: States are warning stuggling Americans who rely on food stamps to pay for groceries that they may miss out on benefits come November.

States are warning stuggling Americans who rely on food stamps to pay for groceries that they may miss out on benefits come November.

Washington

States across the United States are alerting residents who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that their benefits may be interrupted if the government shutdown persists. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has notified states that there may not be enough funds to pay full SNAP benefits, potentially affecting one in eight Americans.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is also at risk of running out of funds, impacting approximately 7 million low-income mothers and children. Emergency food systems, such as food banks, are already under strain and may not be able to meet increased demand if federal assistance is halted. Federal workers administering these programs are themselves furloughed and facing financial uncertainty.

States warn SNAP benefits may stop amid govt shutdown

States are warning struggling Americans who rely on food stamps to pay for groceries that they may miss out on benefits come November. It comes after the USDA sent out letters saying that if the lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full benefits next month. That would leave roughly one in eight people in the U.S. without food assistance, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Ellen May currently furloughed from her job at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service as also a chapter president, representing her coworkers at the Northeast Regional Office. Ellen, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me. The impact of the shutdown on SNAP benefits comes on the heels of President Trump's mega bill. It already cut the program by more than $180 billion over the next 10 years. Can this program cover the needs in our country? What happens to the 42 million Americans, if not? Yeah, and I just want to start off by saying that everything that I'll say today is my personal view. I'm definitely not speaking on behalf of my agency, speaking as a private citizen here. And as you said, there's been lots of reports that SNAP benefits might not go out. And there's a lot of uncertainty about how things and people's food needs will be covered if the money goes out. There's really no like certainty about if the food banks are gonna be enough to cover all of the needs that people will have if their SNAP benefit, if their SNAP EBT cards don't swipe when they go to the grocery store, or if there will be other like funds coming in, especially like we as a furloughed worker, we usually know more sitting on the other side, but we really don't know a lot right now since we're all in the furlough. And the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, that's also known as WIC, is also on the verge of running out of money. It will impact some 7 million low-income mothers, expectant mothers, and children. Are there any resources or emergency measures in place? So I've seen that the National WIC Association, well, first at the first half of the month, they announced that the White House had given them extra funding so that people could have WIC benefits in the month of October. And I saw that they released a memo within this past week asking for the White House to take action to do that again. But other than that, there's really no saying if the states will have money to help WIC benefits keep flowing, or if the people on the program, the pregnant women and their children under the age of five will have to turn again to the emergency food system. That's already under a lot of strain. One of my members volunteers at a food bank, and recently they said that the food bank opens at 8.30, goes until 11, and by 9.30, we're already starting to run out of some food. So not sure if it'll be enough. You know, you're in a unique position where you're not only on one side trying to help people get SNAP benefits, but you're also a furloughed federal worker not getting a paycheck yourself. What do you want people to know? It's been difficult for federal workers. We're in all sorts of different financial situations. A lot of my coworkers and members have children, or they have elderly family members that they're in charge of taking care of and helping along, or they have children who they're trying to put through college, mortgage payments, car payments, et cetera, I myself am in a better financial situation, but really like everybody just wants to go back to work no matter what kind of situation that we're in, because we want to go back to helping people, we want to go back to serving the American public, and we really want the government above all else to serve the people and not just the very rich and powerful. And we wanna see our programs come back to life. I would love to know the answers to these questions about SNAP and WIC and all of the other food banks and like food assistance programs that we help administer. Ellen May, thank you for your time. Thank you for having me.

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