Friday, October 24, 2025

Ongoing Shutdown Threatens Food Aid for 42 Million People

In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown.

Posted by LampLighter at 04:33 PM | 17 COMMENTS | permalink

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The shutdown cliff that could hit Dems hard: SNAP, which helps feed more than 40 million people, will start to run out of funds Nov. 1.

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-- Politico (@politico.com) Oct 23, 2025 at 9:57 AM

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More from the article ...

... SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is the country's largest anti-hunger program.
Stephanie Rogers at her mother's home outside Denver, where she and her two daughters now live. Rogers has dipped into her retirement to help the family get through the federal shutdown.

"The vast majority are children, working people, older Americans, veterans and people with disabilities," Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, says of food stamp recipients. "If the SNAP program shuts down, we will have the most mass hunger suffering we've had in America since the Great Depression." ...

Food aid advocates say USDA can and should keep funding SNAP. "SNAP still has billions of dollars in what are called contingency reserves," says Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy institute. That wouldn't cover the entire amount, but she says the agency could legally transfer additional funds, as they've done for the WIC nutrition program. In fact, Bergh argues USDA has a legal obligation to fund SNAP since it's an entitlement program.

Department officials did not respond to an NPR query about whether there is such a legal obligation.

The origins of U.S. food benefits go back to the Great Depression. If funding does lapse next month, Bergh says, "We would be in uncharted territory." ...



#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 01:46 PM

"Let them eat cats!" - Don Marie Antionette

#2 | Posted by Corky at 2025-10-24 02:22 PM

"Let them eat cats!" - Don Marie Antionette
#2 | Posted by Corky at 2025-10-24 02:22 PM | Reply | Flag: Leave My Cat Alone!


#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-10-24 03:02 PM

Ongoing Shutdown Threatens Food Aid for 42 Million People

"If a single trans person goes without breakfast, it'll be worth it."
-2024 Swing State Trump Voter

#4 | Posted by censored at 2025-10-24 05:38 PM

Trump administration says it won't tap emergency funds to pay food aid
www.politico.com

... The Trump administration won't tap emergency funds to pay for federal food benefits, imperiling benefits starting Nov. 1 for nearly 42 million Americans who rely on the nation's largest anti-hunger program, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.

USDA said in the memo that it won't tap a contingency fund or other nutrition programs to cover the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is set to run out of federal funds at the end of the month.

The contingency fund for SNAP currently holds roughly $5 billion, which would not cover the full $9 billion the administration would need to fund November benefits. Even if the administration did partially tap those funds, it would take weeks to dole out the money on a pro rata basis " meaning most low-income Americans would miss their November food benefits anyway.

In order to make the deadline, the Trump administration would have needed to start preparing for partial payments weeks ago, which it has not done. ...


#5 | Posted by lamplighter at 2025-10-24 07:27 PM

I don't get it, why don't us privileged Liberals set up some kind of pool where we could directly give your money to the less fortunate?

We could bypass the stalled and outrageous bureaucracy and give the money directly to the poor.

Lets do this, Gaslighter, make a go fund me!

Unless ... of course the bureaucracy is the point?

#6 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-10-24 08:49 PM

@#6

Troll much?

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 09:01 PM

- Idontgetit

That your new handle here? Because it's PERFECT!

#8 | Posted by Corky at 2025-10-24 09:07 PM

... In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown. ...

Yet, build a new shrine for Pres Trump.

Why does Pres Trump seem to be so "I don't care" about the shutdown?

Is it something he wants to happen?


#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 09:31 PM

Why does Pres Trump seem to be so "I don't care" about the shutdown?

Because he doesn't care. There's nothing in it for him either way, so why should he?

#10 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-10-24 09:45 PM

@#10 ... There's nothing in it for him either way, so why should he? ...

I disagree.

There is something in it for him to continue the shutdown ... a crippled Federal government.

Which seems to be exactly what he, and Project 2025, were aiming for.

So, with a shutdown Pres Trump can enable those parts of government that he likes, and disable those parts he dislikes.

Just like a dictator.

imo, Pres Trump wants the shutdown to continue, if not permanently.



#11 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 10:24 PM

@#11 ... So, with a shutdown Pres Trump can enable those parts of government that he likes, and disable those parts he dislikes.

Just like a dictator. ...

as a side comment, Spkr Johnson seems to be quite supportive of this.

#12 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 10:26 PM

... a crippled Federal government.

He had that before the shutdown. He is the Federal government.

#13 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-10-24 10:26 PM

@#13 ... He had that before the shutdown ...

I'm not convinced of that.


#14 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 10:41 PM

I'm not convinced of that.

Do you have a long list of his pet projects the non-crippled US government stopped him from doing?

#15 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-10-24 10:44 PM

@#15 ... Do you have a long list of his pet projects the non-crippled US government stopped him from doing? ...

For starters, I doubt if Pres Trump's shutdown is halting any of his pet projects.

Indeed, his comments that he seems to want to eliminate projects in blue states seem to run counter to that view.


Here's what happens to the Hudson River tunnel project linking N.J. and N.Y.C. now that Trump terminated' it
www.nj.com

... Trump reiterated the termination in a video where he spoke to reporters about Gateway on Air Force One on Oct. 19, saying "right now there is no funding" because "it's up to me." ...


#16 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-24 11:03 PM

saying "right now there is no funding" because "it's up to me." ...

I'm fairly certain he would have terminated it anyway. He has no guardrails, and never did.

It wouldn't surprize me if he bulldozed the rest of the White house and moved the seat of government to Mar-A-Largo.

Would anyone stop him? Certainly not Congress or SCOTUS.

#17 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-10-24 11:12 PM

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