Overview
- Nearly 42 million people could miss food aid beginning Nov. 1 after the agency said the "well has run dry" during the month‑long shutdown.
- Attorneys general and governors from 25 states filed suit in federal court in Boston seeking to compel USDA to tap roughly $5–6 billion in contingency funds.
- USDA maintains those reserves are for disasters and not routine monthly payments, even as past shutdown plans anticipated drawing on them.
- Congress remains stalled, with competing stand‑alone SNAP bills introduced but not enacted, and the administration pressing for a continuing resolution.
- Food banks report surging demand and strained supplies in states including Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana and Texas, while states and communities deploy stopgaps such as California fast‑tracking $80 million for food banks and Connecticut issuing a $3 million grant.