If the United States federal Government shutdown Further, millions of low-income Americans could lose access to a monthly benefit that pays for food.
About 42 million people receive money through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes called food stamps. The Agriculture Department told states in an Oct. 10 letter that if the shutdown continues, the program will run out of money to provide benefits in November.
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President Donald Trump’s Republican administration is blaming Democrats Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins reiterated the health care lie on X on October 16: “Democrats are putting their political agenda ahead of free health care for illegal aliens and food security for American families. Shameful.”
Due to government shutdown Disagreement Democrats – who want Congress, as part of approving federal funding, to extend the expiring Enhanced Subsidy for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which allows uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance – and Republicans, who want to increase federal funding first before negotiating whether or how to extend ACA subsidies.
SNAP is a federal program administered by state agencies. Participants receive an average individual monthly benefit of about $190, or $356 per household. Recipients can use the benefits to buy fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, bread and other foods. The majority of SNAP families live in poverty.
Lawmakers and social media users have made several statements with varying degrees of accuracy about SNAP and the Republican tax and spending law signed by Trump in July. Here’s a closer look:
Social media posts say food stamps will disappear on November 1
Several social media posts have said that food stamps will be phased out on November 1.
“Let it sink in – just for the cold season and the month of thanksgiving,” one Instagram post said.
This can happen to millions of people. But this may not happen for all of them, and it may happen throughout the month of November as the monthly date that people receive their benefits varies from state to state.
The Trump administration could use SNAP’s contingency funds to pay for about two-thirds of a full month’s worth of benefits or transfer it to other Agriculture Department funds, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The administration said it received funding to continue another food program for low-income families, the Women, Infants and Children Program.
According to the Department of Agriculture’s Funding Lapse Plan, SNAP “will continue operations during appropriation shortfalls, subject to the availability of funds.”
The Agriculture Department’s letter has asked states to stop steps that would allow people to receive their November benefits. Federal rules require that the cuts be made in such a way that high-income recipients lose more benefits than the lowest-income recipients.
We asked the administration officials for more details but got no response to our queries.
Several state officials — including Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin — said if the shutdown continues, participants may or may not receive benefits in November. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told PolitiFact that if the shutdown continues in November, benefits will not be issued.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday he would deploy the National Guard and California Volunteers, a state agency, to support food banks and provide $80 million in state money.
“Empty cupboards and bellies are not abstract consequences,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers told Rollins in a letter Wednesday. “The dysfunction in Washington is a very real and immediate consequence. These are also consequences that you can avoid today.”
Meanwhile, other Trump administration policies have hit food banks across the country. ProPublica reported on October 3 that earlier in the year, the administration cut $500m in distributions through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides food to state distribution agencies.
So what did leading jurists say on the matter and how true are their claims?
SNAP ‘We’re Not Cutting’
– Mike Johnson, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, on the TV program Face the Nation on May 25
This is fAlso.
Johnson spoke after the House passed the Republican-backed bill A big beautiful billThat included many of Trump’s policy priorities.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan number-crunching arm of Congress, projected in May that an average of 3.2 million fewer people would receive SNAP benefits per month over the next nine years based on changes in work requirements and restrictions on states’ ability to waive work requirements in areas with high unemployment.
The most recent August CBO analysis estimated that the changes would reduce participation in SNAP by about 2.4 million people.
‘For every $1 spent through SNAP, nearly 25 cents go to farmers and ranchers’
– Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong in a June 12 X post
This is true.
In a series of X posts, Hong said it’s not just families receiving food assistance that will be hurt by the law.
A chart published this year by the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service showed that in 2023, agricultural establishments, including grocery stores and supermarkets, accounted for 24.3 cents of every dollar spent on food at home.
About 20 percent of veteran households rely on SNAP
– House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a May 8 press conference
This is IVery false.
An April 2 study found that 8 percent of veterans rely on SNAP benefits. No state’s share was more than 14 percent. A study of data from a few years ago showed rates ranging from 4.9 percent to 6.6 percent.
Louie Jacobson, staff writer Lorebene Tuckero and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Madeline Heim contributed to this article.