Скачать или смотреть No end in sight for 2nd longest government shutdown in history, 12th vote fails

(ASSOCIATED PRESS) A federal program that provides food assistance to 40 million low-income people could be at risk in November if the government shutdown isn’t resolved by then.

And in at least some places, new applications for the program are not being approved.

But there’s still a lot of uncertainty about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, a vestige of a previous incarnation of food aid.

Here’s a look at where things stand.
The food aid program benefits 1 in 8 people in the US
SNAP is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net, touching nearly 1 in 8 people in the country each month. They receive benefits on prepaid cards that they can use for groceries.

The other big pieces of the safety net — Social Security and Medicaid — are expected to continue paying benefits during the shutdown.

But because of the way it’s funded, SNAP is vulnerable.

In the accounting year that ended on Sept. 30, 2024, SNAP cost just over $100 billion, including the half of state administrative costs covered by federal taxpayers. It provided an average of $187 a month to 41.7 million people.

States were warned about November benefits
When the government shut down on Oct. 1 amid a congressional budget impasse, a few things were clear about SNAP.

One was that benefits would continue through October.

The other was that it was unclear after that.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, sent letters on Oct. 10 to the state agencies that administer it telling them not to send certain files to the contractors that would clear the way for the EBT cards to be loaded at the start of November.


Different states send that information at different points in the month.

Carolyn Vega, the associate director of policy analysis at Share Our Strength, an anti-poverty advocacy group, said that pausing sending the information now doesn’t mean that cards can’t be loaded next month, with or without resumption of government operations.

But it’s not good news, either. “The question marks are trending in a bad direction for November,” she said.