With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people who made do with little-to-no assistance for the past couple of weeks.
A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from President Donald Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states already had issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, issued new guidance Thursday, instructing: “State agencies must take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”
The federal food program serves about 42 million people, about 1 in 8 Americans, in lower-income households. They receive an average of around $190 monthly per person, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the full cost of groceries for a regular month.
Because of the uncertainty over benefits, the USDA told states to exclude November from a federal requirement that most adult SNAP recipients work, volunteer or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. Under normal circumstances, recipients can only go three months in a span of three years without meeting the work requirements.