The Trump administration is now literally *fighting* to deny food to 42 million people, more than a third of them children. Read that again. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/u...

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

SNAP surveys SNAP users. Already half of them are saying they are skipping meals.

What are the effects of the shutdown on SNAP users? Propel provides an app to SNAP users to allow them to track their spending and so can offer real-time estimates of needs. About 70% of SNAP households have a $10 or less balance on their SNAP card accounts. www.propel.app/shutdown-fun...

Shutdowns hurt people and it will be good news when the government reopens. But it is vital that Congress also address both the looming massive spike in health care costs for 20M *and* deliver a funding deal that the President can’t undo the parts he just doesn’t like. 🧵

President Trump just fired yet another Inspector General—the latest in a series of unprecedented, irresponsible & often illegal steps to evade accountability. Our latest explains how undercutting oversight hurts taxpayers & beneficiaries, including at Social Security. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

The Social Security Administration used to have an incredible communications arm, including even a film unit. This was crucial in helping people understand the program, and how it would work. From 1936, 1939. www.ssa.gov/history/puba...

Wow, huge credit to Katie and the rest of the nutrition team at @centeronbudget.bsky.social. USDA has now issued revised numbers because CBPP caught them either accidentally or intentionally making huge errors that would severely underfund SNAP, in direct violation of court orders.

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.

"Separation of powers" - mmm: might it also apply to actions like firing federal employees, impoundments, eliminating of agencies? Or just taxes.

It is a relief that the Administration is finally agreeing to do the bare minimum and follow the law by using the #SNAP contingency reserve to partially fund November SNAP benefits & nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico & American Samoa.

Until now, Social Security disability benefits got easier to qualify for as a person reached 50+. A new Trump plan would end that. Under the plan, millions, particularly in red states, could find it more difficult to qualify for disability benefits in the future. ➡️ More: propub.li/4oeO7VO

After repeatedly requesting permission and following all the official guidelines, Catholic bishop, priests, sisters and lay people were refused permission to distribute Communion to migrants in ICE detention center, on All Saints Day. A religious freedom issue: www.ncronline.org/news/ice-aga...

On All Saints/Souls weekend, I’m thinking of the late Bea Sacks. I met Bea when I was 18 & she was nearly 80. Despite our age difference, we were kindred spirits & our friendship changed my life. I still think of her with great fondness. ❤️

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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.

Lots of wrong information coming from the Trump administration on SNAP "running out of money November 1" and the SNAP contingency fund. The truth is: 1) It *can* be used to cover SNAP benefits during a shutdown. 2) It actually *must* be used to cover SNAP benefits during a shutdown. Let's dig in.

A forthcoming Trump Administration disability rule may be the biggest disability cut of all time, making it harder for older applicants to qualify. “This is AARP’s population, and we’re very concerned about making it harder to get help when they need it.” www.aarp.org/social-secur...

Likewise, SSA didn’t collect evidence on citizenship when issuing SSNs until 1972. www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/...

The Trump Administration is creating a backdoor national registry using Social Security data that’s not always sufficient to identify citizens correctly. Congress never authorized this. It could disenfranchise legitimate voters. www.propublica.org/article/dhs-...

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.

Watch @sharonparrott.bsky.social @centeronbudget.bsky.social explain what the Trump Administration should do to help families afford groceries & why there is no good excuse not to use SNAP contingency reserves.

Reality check: SNAP is widely used in red and blue states, in urban and rural areas, and benefits a large number of MAGA voters. And more than half of ACA enrollees live in Republican-controlled districts, per KFF. The pain will be broadly felt. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Historically, older women (65+) have had more or less rock solid confidence in Social Security, more or less across party lines. That may be changing.

Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano keeps insisting he’s fixed phone service. But the truth is that pushing out humans who answer the phones, then unleashing bots on the millions of seniors, disabled people & bereaved families who call, has been a nightmare for many. wapo.st/4hC161y

Food bank director: “for every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There’s no way we can meet that gap.”

Was curious about the relationship between congressional district politics and SNAP recipients. While there are more households receiving SNAP in Harris-voting districts, there are more vulnerable people (kids, disabled and elderly) receiving them in Trump-voting ones. www.pbump.net/o/breaking-d...

It couldn't be clearer. The Trump Administration MUST use contingency reserves for SNAP benefits during the shutdown. It is the law & precedent. The Administration's choice treats people like political pawns rather than people who simply need help affording groceries.

It’s not just that they don’t have to turn off SNAP benefits — they’re not legally allowed to. They legally must use the contingency fund. The admin is pretending they can’t use it even though their own guidance from a month ago (that they’ve since deleted) contradicts that.

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil & his angels. “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in…I was sick…and you did not look after me.” Matthew 25:41-3

Hope is not a sentimental optimism that things will somehow work out; hope is the subversive conviction that injustice and death will not have the final word and acting on that belief. Hope is not passive waiting it’s active persistence. Hope prays, peacefully protests, weeps, and keeps showing up.

USDA is legally required to use the contingency funds on SNAP benefits for November. In July, President Trump and Congressional Republicans enacted the largest cuts to SNAP in history. The reason they aren't planning on providing SNAP benefits is that they don't want to.

My latest on the Administration's wildly unlawful shutdown of SNAP. To buy their argument, you must ignore the interpretation they took Sept. 30 and repeatedly in the first Trump Administration. Shamelesly and gratuitously cruel. Balkinization share.google/yaVtx89DJsIR...

Punchbowl reports “White House officials determined they do not have the authority” to use contingency reserves —billions of $ that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is inadequate— to fund Nov. SNAP benefits. But, that’s not what USDA’s now-deleted shutdown plan says:

New from me on @lawfaremedia.org: how Trump violated the law to pay the military. It's a long piece that goes into why it's illegal (with helpful analogies), what other abuses this unlocks if you believe presidents should have this power, what recourse there is, etc.

New, from me: Trump is prioritizing paying the armed forces over other federal employees during a shutdown. He is trying to win over the rank and file even as he tells military leaders to target “the enemy within.” 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

The Trump Admin is making the shutdown worse by taking unprecedented, even illegal, steps to inflict unnecessary damage to public services/investments, federal workers who deliver them & the public who depends on them. This is exactly why we need guardrails in a deal. www.cbpp.org/blog/the-tru...

Next year's Social Security COLA will be 2.8%. More on how it works & why it matters below. Shout-out to the BLS staff called back during the shutdown to calculate inflation--with no paycheck. Their work allows 75M Social Security & SSI beneficiaries to have benefits that keep up w/rising prices.

Fact check: Social Security benefits are funded through permanent law, not annual appropriations. They have *nothing* to do with the shutdown. They're being paid on time and in full. Trump is fearmongering the 70M people who receive Social Security to get his way. www.newsweek.com/social-secur...

The Administration is legally required to use contingency reserves to fund November benefits for the 1 in 8 Americans who need #SNAP to afford groceries, despite USDA Sec. Rollins’ claim that the Administration is unable to do so. My statement: www.cbpp.org/press/statem...

Hey, remember when Elon Musk was going save hundreds of billions of dollars by revoking Social Security benefits for dead people? Didn't happen, because hardly any dead people were getting Social Security. Instead, there's been a big *increase* in Social Security recipients since Musk's DC stint.

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...

With inflation on everyone’s minds, it’s a good time to recognize one of Social Security’s most valuable features: Its annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which will be announced tomorrow. 🧵

An act of Congress is required to dismantle the Dept of Ed or undo the law's requirements for Ed to administer IDEA and maintain an office of special ed. The Trump Admin hasn't requested these changes--and Congress has shown no interest in approving them. www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-a...

None of the Trump Admin’s billions in cuts to grants for Dem-led states “are required by a shutdown,” says CBPP’s Sam Berger. “They’re an intentional effort to try and inflict economic pain in order to force Dems to concede.” #GreatRead via @msnbc.com: www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/g...

Washington, DC opened its 2026 ACA marketplace window shopping. As in other locations, enrollees are seeing big premium spikes because of expiring tax credit enhancements. A typical 60-year-old couple making $85,000 is facing a $24,100 annual increase. (1/4)

Shuttering the Dept of Ed offices that oversee special ed & civil rights is a bipartisan betrayal. “It’s a thwarting of federal law & the requirements that have been enacted by Congress over many decades,” said Margaret Spellings, Ed secretary under George W. Bush. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/u...

Gutting the staff who oversee special ed not only threatens the quality education disabled children need, but also undermines Congress’s constitutional authority — and underscores why legislators must enact safeguards to ensure that the Administration follows the law. www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-a...

It is not so long ago that disability policy was bipartisan. I taught at the Bush School, and George H.W. Bush would talk about his pride in signing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Great afternoon at No Kings DC! Here’s a thread of some favorite signs, costumes, and images.