The federal government is reopening, but there’s still uncertainty about when one of the most far-reaching impacts of the closure will be resolved and all 42 million Americans who receive SNAP food aid will have access to their full November benefits.
President Donald Trump signed the reopening measure Wednesday.
One provision calls for restarting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but it doesn’t resolve when the benefits will be loaded onto the debit cards beneficiaries use to buy groceries.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, said in an email Wednesday that funds could be available “upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most states.” The department didn’t immediately answer questions about where it might take longer — or whether the 24-hour timeline applies to when money would be available to states or loaded onto debit cards used by beneficiaries.
There has been a series of court battles over the fate of the largest government food program, which serves about 1 in 8 Americans.
Here are things to know about how it could go.
When SNAP funds become available could vary by state
Seesawing court rulings and messages from the USDA have meant that beneficiaries in some states already have received their full monthly allocations while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.
States say it’s faster to provide full benefits than it is to do the calculations and computer programming required for partial amounts.
At least 19 states plus the District of Columbia issued full benefits to at least some recipients last week, an Associated Press tally found. Many of them managed to do it in a day or so, in the narrow window between the Nov. 6 court ruling that required the federal government to make full payments and one Nov. 7 by the U.S. Supreme Court that stopped it.
Jessica Garon, a spokesperson for the American Public Human Services Association, said she anticipates most states will be able to issue full benefits within three days after they’re given the go-ahead, but that it might take a week for others.
Experts say the states that have sent no November benefits already, such as South Carolina and West Virginia, will likely be the quickest.
But there’s a complication. Sixteen states have loaded the EBT cards used in SNAP with partial benefits. Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst with the advocacy group Share Our Strength said some of those states might run into technical hurdles to issue the remaining amount.
Delays in benefits can be a problem for recipients
Even if there’s some clarity that benefits are on the way, exactly when they arrive will matter to millions of Americans.
About 42 million lower-income Americans receive SNAP benefits, on average about $190 monthly per person. Many say the benefits don’t and aren’t intended to cover the full cost of groceries in a regular month, even with careful budgeting.
It’s worse when benefits are delayed.
Doretha Washington, 41, of St. Louis, and her husband have themselves and six children to feed and not enough money to cover that cost. Her husband works servicing heating and cooling systems, but the family still needs SNAP to get by. They had received nothing in November, although Missouri said Tuesday that partial benefits would be issued.
“Now it’s making things difficult because we can’t pay our bills in full and keep food in here,” Washington said this week. “I’m down to three days of food and trying to figure out what to do.”
She has been rationing what they have.
Other people have turned to food charities but are sometimes finding long lines and low supplies.
Cutting off funds left state governments scrambling
The USDA told states Oct. 24 that it would not fund the program for November if the shutdown continued. That left states scrambling. Most Democratic-led states sued to have the funding restored.
Some Democratic and Republican-led states launched efforts to pay for SNAP benefits using state money, boost food banks and deploy the National Guard to help with food distribution. Another group of states used their money allotted for SNAP benefits only after a judge ordered the Trump administration to cover the full cost for the month.
The legislation to reopen the government passed by the Senate on Monday calls for states to be reimbursed for spending their funds to run programs usually paid for by the federal government.
It’s not immediately clear, though, which situations might qualify in the case of SNAP.
In the meantime, the USDA told states Tuesday that it would reimburse them for paying out partial SNAP benefits under a system where recipients get up to 65% of their regular allocations — and even states that paid the full amount can receive partial reimbursements. It also said it would not reduce the amount on cards for recipients in states that paid full amounts.
Democratic-led states that sued for benefits to be made available said in a filing Wednesday that the late-arriving information “illustrates the chaos and confusion occasioned by USDA’s multiple, conflicting guidance documents.”
