Update: USDA revised their #SNAP contingency fund plan to provide households with a larger share of their November benefits. This is an important but inadequate step. Families need their full benefits to afford groceries & the Administration has the authority to provide them.

Low-income families will see even deeper #SNAP cuts because the Administration plans to release only two-thirds of the funds it says are available, shortchanging millions who rely on benefits to afford food. More from @katiebergh.bsky.social: www.cbpp.org/blog/adminis...

If SNAP math is hurting your brain today, this is shows why USDA's 50% cut to maximum SNAP benefits translates into a much deeper cut to average benefits. Only households receiving the maximum benefit will see a 50% cut under USDA's plan – and everyone else gets cut more deeply.

NEW: Millions of poor Americans could see $0 in SNAP benefits even after the Trump admin agreed to resume partial benefits in response to a court order. This is because of the way the government has interpreted the directive, which could also delay aid for weeks. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/u...

Remember the lesson to watch what people DO rather than what they SAY? The Trump Admin has promised to help people afford basic needs like food, health care & housing but they are DOING the exact opposite. No family needed to miss November SNAP benefits. USDA can fix this.

Why does a 50% cut to maximum SNAP benefits = a ~60% cut in average benefits? A household's SNAP benefit = Maximum benefit - 30% of net income Most SNAP households have some income & get less than the maximum. A 50% cut to the maximum is a much greater % cut to their benefits.

New data: CBPP analyzed USDA’s contingency fund spending plan & found it is only going to release 2/3 of the funding they committed to in court filings, cutting families’ SNAP benefits far more than necessary, violating USDA’s own regulations & shortchanging millions of families.

Sensing a theme in megabill implementation: The Trump Administration is once again putting even more people at risk of losing SNAP benefits unnecessarily & setting states up to fail by issuing unclear guidance with unrealistic implementation timelines.

Let's be clear: Any delays as states work to implement partial benefits will be because the Administration has deliberately chosen not to transfer the funds needed for full benefits—which the courts affirmed they have the authority to do.

Doing the bare minimum because a court order forced their hand? That's not enough. The Administration could & should use their legal transfer authority so low-income families receive full SNAP benefits for November—and full benefits could get to those families more quickly.⤵️

The administration just told a court it's refusing do the same thing to ensure full SNAP benefits go out www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

"Still, the saga has laid bare the shutdown strategy at the White House, where Mr. Trump has been willing to shield only some Americans from the harms of a fiscal standoff that he has made no effort to resolve."

"Legal impediments?" Not one but two federal judges have now clarified that the Administration can use those contingency funds for November SNAP benefits—and in fact the law *requires* them to do so.

“The administration could have, and should have, taken steps weeks ago to be ready to use these funds. To further delay will rip away vital food assistance from millions of low-income families right before the holidays.”

As I was saying:

Reminder: This is happening at the same time some of the biggest cuts from the Republican megabill are also taking effect, meaning millions of people will soon lose SNAP benefits on a permanent basis. www.cbpp.org/research/foo...

Any appeal of the decision or further delay would just underscore that the Administration is choosing to rip away vital food assistance from millions of low-income families right before the holidays. x.com/sarahnferris...

The Administration could have, and should have, taken steps weeks ago to be ready to use these funds. Instead, it chose to unlawfully hold them up in an effort to gain political advantage. www.cbpp.org/press/statem...

Families cannot afford further delays. The Administration must immediately release the contingency reserves and use their legal authority to transfer additional funds so families can get the full benefits they need to buy food as quickly as possible.

Today’s rulings confirm what’s been clear all along: the Administration has been sitting on billions of available dollars that it is legally required to use to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need SNAP to afford their groceries.

If SNAP benefits don’t go out November 1, it’s not because of the shutdown or because SNAP ran out of money. It’s because the Trump admin is illegally refusing to use the money in the SNAP contingency fund. The same admin that enacted the largest cuts to SNAP in history.

Trump is funding what he wants to fund while denying food to hungry folks. And he has a contingency fund sitting right there that he obstinately refuses to use. prospect.org/2025/10/29/t...

> "a September contingency plan, since deleted from the USDA’s website...said Congress intended 'that SNAP’s operations should continue' and that contingency funds 'are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs [mid-fiscal year]'" www.huffpost.com/entry/govern...

The Trump Administration’s assertion that it can't use SNAP’s contingency reserves for SNAP benefits is contrary to: ▪️The plain language of the law ▪️Their own (now deleted) shutdown plan ▪️Guidance from prior Administrations We have the receipts:

The Trump Administration is refusing to use SNAP’s contingency reserves — which Congress provided for this exact purpose — to help low-income families afford groceries next month. Nearly 90% of SNAP participants are in households with kids, seniors, or people with disabilities.

Congress provided SNAP's multi-year contingency reserves for use "in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations." Those funds are now needed to carry out program operations. This isn't rocket science.

Food insecurity experts say this is the first government shutdown in which SNAP benefits have been at such severe risk.

USDA's position during this and prior shutdowns has been that the contingency reserve is available to pay for SNAP benefits during a funding lapse...until about 20 minutes ago, apparently.

SNAP, the country's largest anti-hunger program, dates back to the Great Depression and has never been disrupted this way. Most recipients are seniors, families with kids, and those with disabilities. n.pr/48PNNIt

Despite the shutdown, the Trump Administration has the ability to ensure millions of low-income families can afford groceries next month. If they're not doing so, that is a choice they are making.

This isn't a state issue - USDA has directed states to hold off on issuing November SNAP benefits until further notice. But the Trump Administration has clear steps they can & must take so families get the benefits they need to afford groceries next month. www.cbpp.org/blog/the-tru...

This past Friday, the Trump Administration made a choice to cut support for vital services people depend on like education funding for children with special needs, financial services in underserved communities, and public health readiness. 🧵

Firing federal employees during a shutdown is not only illegal but must be seen for what it is: blatant extortion. The Trump Administration is using working people and their families as pawns in a power play with no concern for who gets hurt.

This decision means SNAP participants who live in areas where jobs are scarce in CA, CT, DC, GU, IL, KY, MI, MT, MN, ND, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OR, RI, VI, and WA will be at risk of being cut off SNAP by the program's harsh & ineffective work requirement even earlier than anticipated.

With information about how states must implement the megabill's #SNAP cuts trickling out from USDA, we've updated our timeline on when these harmful cuts will start going into effect: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

"The policy change under OBBBA that will most severely undercut SNAP’s role in fighting recessions is the transfer, for the first time, of significant program costs from the federal government onto states."

Low-income families are increasingly struggling to afford groceries & other basic needs. Rather than exacerbating the harm of the megabill’s #SNAP cuts – the deepest cuts to food assistance in history – Congress & the Trump Administration should provide relief from these policies.

How to make SNAP errors more likely: 1️⃣Pass a law adding a bunch of complex red tape to SNAP 2️⃣Make those changes go into effect immediately 3️⃣Provide no details about how states should implement those changes for months 4️⃣Then cut federal funding for states' admin costs in half

Many SNAP participants will start to see the impacts of the Republican megabill's SNAP cuts in late 2025 & early 2026. But many more low-income people are at risk of losing food benefits unnecessarily because of how the Trump Administration is implementing those cuts.

Apparently House Speaker Johnson described #WIC as having shut down today. That’s not true. USDA has made clear that WIC has some federal funding to stay open for now & states can keep it open when that runs out. (I expect that will be in about 2 weeks, depending on the state.)

Important #WIC update: With available federal funding sources, WIC should be able to continue operations for now. States should also do everything they can to prevent disruption & communicate with families so they don't miss out on benefits. @zoeneuberger.bsky.social has the details 👇

More than 2 in 5 veterans enrolled in the ACA marketplace will lose their coverage if premium tax credit enhancements expire, out of the 623,000 veterans who would otherwise have marketplace coverage in 2026. New Urban Institute estimates here: tinyurl.com/2bs4aj2j

Not only is this funding a fraction of the Medicaid cuts it's supposed to make up for, there's preferable scoring for states that align with the Trump Administration's ideology - like restricting the foods SNAP can be used for, despite a lack of evidence those restrictions improve diets or health.

Important reality check from @zoeneuberger.bsky.social on the options the Trump Administration & state officials should use to prevent disruption to #WIC in the event of a government shutdown:

The recent news that the Trump Administration is discontinuing our longest-running & most consistent survey of household food insecurity is part of a larger trend.⤵️

Overall rates of food insecurity held steady in 2020 & 2021 despite the pandemic. Food insecurity among households with kids actually reached a two-decade low in 2021. In contrast, food insecurity increased during the Great Recession amid a less robust policy response. Policy matters.

Food insecurity won’t go away just because the Trump administration has apparently decided to stop measuring it — especially with food prices rising & the deepest cuts to SNAP in history beginning to go into effect.

What does this mean for current SNAP participants? In most cases, impacted households won't see changes from this new policy until they renew their benefits. But USDA hasn't yet provided information on how other SNAP cuts from the megabill will be implemented — so stay tuned.

Some #SNAP participants will begin to see their food assistance reduced or eliminated due to the Republican megabill, based on a memo from USDA on Friday outlining how states must begin implementing one of the new law’s SNAP cuts. fns.usda.gov/snap/admin/e...

DOGE staff at Social Security have put the sensitive data of hundreds of millions is at "high risk," which could have “catastrophic impact,” according to internal SSA docs. This was not only foreseeable, but widely predicted. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...