Republicans Now Suddenly Care A Lot About Something They Voted Against

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Public schools were already sounding the alarm that if the government shutdown drags into next month, districts across the country may not have the money to feed hungry schoolchildren who come from low-income families. And now, even more of them will go hungry next month when more than 41 million people lose access to the country’s most critical food benefit.

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture, is normally funded to the tune of $8 billion monthly through appropriations, the budget for federal spending that Congress is supposed to negotiate and pass for each fiscal year.

But this year, the ongoing government shutdown has brought that to a halt.

Now, many states are warning that the prolonged shutdown could mean that there won’t be any money for SNAP — colloquially known as food stamps — meaning that recipients won’t be able to buy groceries. That puts millions of people, including 16 million children, at risk of food insecurity.

“November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,” reads a message on Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services that lays the blame for the shutdown on Republicans. “Starting October 16, SNAP benefits will not be paid until the federal government shutdown ends and funds are released to PA.”

Texas’ Health and Human Services agency had a similar message for those who use the benefit, saying, “SNAP benefits for November won’t be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past Oct. 27.”

And Louisiana issued a flyer to be put up in grocery stores in the state, warning that the debit cards via which SNAP benefits are issued will not be reloaded after Nov. 1. “SNAP benefit issuance will resume once the federal government reopens in Washington, D.C.,” the flyer said.

For all the problems that government shutdowns bring — damage to national parks, air traffic delays and cancellations, and increasingly cranky unpaid government workers — this is a new one. Food insecurity experts said this is the first government shutdown in which SNAP benefits have been at such severe risk.

“It’s going to be a real problem for people and for families,” Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who focuses on social safety net policies, told HuffPost. “We know that SNAP benefits aren’t even adequate when they do get them.” The average recipient receives $6.16 per day for food, but it’s still the most important federal program when it comes to addressing hunger.

The Trump administration has already proved that it has the capacity to fund certain programs even while the government is shut down.

Earlier this month, the White House announced it was providing the Women, Infants, and Children program for pregnant and postpartum people and their children with $300 million. The Trump administration has been using questionable methods to pay workers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, likely in order to avoid the political blowback from hampering popular government programs. Trump is also funding his policy priorities — immigration enforcement officials are also being paid despite the funding lapse.

Then there’s the SNAP contingency fund, money that can be used when there’s a shortfall for whatever reason, that the administration could tap into. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit organization that advocates for progressive policies, the fund has two-thirds of what’s needed to provide a full month of SNAP benefits. But on Friday, according to Axios, USDA said it would not be tapping into the resources, saying it was only for emergencies that happen “quickly” and with “no notice.”

The Trump administration has further indicated that it will not use those funds. Instead, USDA has instructed states to withhold November benefits. Beyond those instructions, experts have said, the Trump administration has not been providing much information to state agencies, despite the rising anxiety.

“They’re dangling hunger in front of people as a political tool,” Ed Bolen, the director of SNAP and state strategies at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, told HuffPost.

The White House did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on the issue. USDA also did not respond to a similar request.

SNAP recipients are some of the most vulnerable Americans. Seventy-three percent of those who receive SNAP benefits are living at or below the poverty level — set at $32,150 a year for a family of four. More than half of the benefits go to those with a gross monthly income at or under 50% of the federal poverty level. Nearly 40% of those covered are children, and 20% are seniors.

“The majority of people on SNAP are seniors, people with disabilities and children,” Bauer said. If their benefits don’t come in next month, she said, “it’s not people who can just grab an extra shift to make up for it.”

Even worse, the slam of the door on food benefits comes at a time when families are already struggling with the cost of living and access to basic necessities. Consumer prices are creeping higher, according to a government report released Friday, while grocery prices in particular have risen dramatically over the past five years. And avenues of relief are being cut off: Last week, advocates warned that the shutdown also meant states would not have funds to provide free or low-cost school lunches, a lifeline for hungry children from families dealing with food insecurity.

People who use SNAP are frequently on extremely tight budgets and plan their monthly spending around their SNAP benefits. Now, many will face a predicament.

“It can be terrifying for folks,” Bolen said. “What do they do if they can’t pay rent because they need that money for food?”

Food banks and other charities will try to pick up some of the slack. Many have already announced that they’re preparing for a surge of furloughed government employees. But it won’t be enough.

“The charitable food system is not set up to operate in a world without SNAP,” Bauer said.

But while millions of people are left wondering if they’re going to put food on the table next month, Republican lawmakers are using the impending calamity as an opportunity to score political points.

“Millions of American families are about to lose access to food assistance because Democrats are openly admitting to being afraid of their far-left base and refuse to reopen the government,” Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), who chairs the House committee that oversees SNAP, told Fox News.

“What’s it gonna take for the Democrats to say, ‘Gee, huh, maybe — maybe people should be able to eat,’” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Politico.

On the other side, Democrats have framed the issue of hunger as inextricably linked to their core issue in the government shutdown, a demand to extend health care subsidies that many families rely on to afford health insurance.

“Worth it to whom? To people who will lose their health care or to people who will lose their food?” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told Politico when asked if the shutdown fight was worth continuing if it meant SNAP funding would dry up.

“We’re people who want Americans to have health care and food. The Republicans, evidently, don’t care whether they have either,” she said.

But if Republicans suddenly care about food assistance for low-income families, they sure have a funny way of showing it.

Donald Trump’s big signature megabill included massive cuts to government benefits, including SNAP — and nearly every Republican, including Thompson and Hawley, voted for it.

“I’m a little bit confused by the growing consensus that SNAP is important when a few months ago they voted to cut it,” Bauer said.

The bill effectively cuts $300 billion to the program through 2034, including through methods like shifting costs to states and making it harder to get benefits in the first place. It’s the deepest cut to the program in history. Millions of people would lose some or all of their benefits, and experts say that SNAP will simply come to an end in some states.

So, who really supports food benefits for low-income Americans?

The administration has also announced that it would be permanently laying off federal workers during the shutdown, despite the shaky legality of such moves. And even though Republican lawmakers are blaming Democrats for the impending crisis, Trump also promised to cut funding for “Democrat” programs in a bid to bring Democrats to the negotiating table.

Some Republican senators have been considering a bill to provide SNAP recipients with benefits for November, a move House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said his chamber would consider if it were put before him. “We have lots of SNAP recipients in our state, as we do in many others,” he told HuffPost. “You’re talking about, I think, it’s 42 or 43 million Americans rely upon that vital service, and it’s unconscionable that they would be held at bay and held as leverage on this.”

But there doesn’t appear to be any real movement on getting a budget passed and reopening the government.

So states and millions of people should prepare for the worst.

“It’s hard to contemplate what would happen if we pulled $8 billion out of the economy and out of the pockets of families who need those benefits,” Bauer said. “We could have a real disaster on our hands.”