Overview
- At a hearing in Boston on Thursday, 25 states and Washington, D.C., asked Judge Indira Talwani for an emergency order requiring USDA to use contingency funds to cover November SNAP benefits.
- USDA updated its shutdown guidance to say no SNAP payments will be issued on Nov. 1, a first for the 60-year-old program that serves roughly 42 million people and typically needs about $8–9 billion monthly.
- In court filings, the department warned that tapping reserves would be “legally dubious and practically disastrous,” citing risks to disaster and child nutrition accounts and major operational disruption.
- The states point to about $6 billion in SNAP contingency funds and argue additional reserves totaling $23–28 billion could be used, while some governors are mounting limited stopgaps such as Louisiana’s up to $150 million per month and new aid for food banks in places like Illinois and New York.
- The shutdown has also delayed LIHEAP heating assistance, with Pennsylvania postponing its program opening by a month and New York pushing to mid-November at the earliest, and experts say federal processing would take four to six weeks once funds are released.