The US House of Representatives, which was on break since mid-September, is set to cast votes and end the record-breaking government shutdown. With this, millions of Americans who rely on federal food aid are also about to get the benefits, but the question is, when?Roughly one in eight Americans depends on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which saw new disbursements frozen for two weeks amid Washington’s political gridlock. Now, as federal agencies race to restart services, food banks report persistent demand and widespread confusion — a stark reminder of how easily safety-net programs can be disrupted when Congress stalls.
When will SNAP benefits resume?
According to the administration, millions of low-income Americans will receive their full food aid benefits within 24 hours of President Donald Trump signing Congress’s shutdown-ending deal into law.Once the government is open, most states will get the funds to distribute benefits “within 24 hours,” USDA spokesperson Alec Varsamis said in a statement Wednesday, Politico reported.The House is expected to pass the funding package and send it to Trump’s desk Wednesday night. The deal would restore the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s largest anti-hunger initiative, to its original spending levels.The resumed SNAP payments would be a relief for the nearly 42 million people who have experienced major disruptions to their typical monthly benefits during the record-breaking shutdown, as the Trump administration has battled states, nonprofits and cities in court over how much money to release. The programme lapsed for the first time on November 1, leaving food banks and state officials scrambling to meet rising hunger needs just ahead of the holiday season.USDA started delivering up to 65 percent of partial benefits last week after a federal judge ordered the department to tap a contingency fund to keep SNAP afloat. But the Trump administration appealed a separate order to pay for full November benefits to the Supreme Court, which has yet to weigh in and likely will not if lawmakers end the shutdown this week.Even after the govt is open, however, some states could see delays in returning SNAP benefit issuances to normal levels, given that they have paused their typical processes for readying the funds due to the shutdown, anti-hunger groups argue.
