The U.S. Department of Agriculture posted a notice on its website that federal food assistance will not be available on Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families across the country as the government shutdown drags on.
The new notice comes as the Trump administration said it won't use roughly $5 billion in reserve funds to maintain benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP, until November. This program helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries.
“Eventually the well ran dry,” said USDA Notice speaks. “Currently there will be no benefits from November 1st. We are approaching a tipping point for Senate Democrats.”
The closure, which began Oct. 1, is now the second longest on record. Although the Republican administration has taken steps toward ending the program to ensure SNAP benefits are paid out this month, the cuts will extend the impact of the impasse to a broader swath of Americans — and some of those who need them most — unless a political solution is found in just a few days.
The administration is blaming Democrats, who say they will not agree to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate with them to extend expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say Democrats must first agree to reopen the government before starting negotiations.
Democratic lawmakers have asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to use reserve funds to cover the bulk of benefits next month.
But a USDA memo on Friday said “reserve funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.” The document says the money is reserved for purposes such as helping people in disaster areas.
As an example of why it is important to have money to quickly mobilize funds in the event of a natural disaster, he cited a storm called Melissa, which became a major hurricane.
The prospect of families not receiving food aid has deeply worried states ruled by both sides.
Some states have pledged to maintain SNAP benefits even if the federal program ends benefits, but there are questions about whether U.S. government guidelines could allow that to happen. The USDA memo also states that states will not be reimbursed for stopgap costs.
Other states are urging SNAP recipients to be prepared for benefits to end. For example, Arkansas and Oklahoma advise recipients to identify food pantries and other groups that help with meals.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, blamed Republicans and Trump for not agreeing to negotiations.
“The reality is that if they sat down and tried to negotiate, we could probably come up with something pretty quickly,” Murphy said Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union.” “We could open the government on Tuesday or Wednesday and there wouldn’t be any crisis in the food stamp program.”
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