(TEXAS TRIBUNE) - Federal food assistance payments to the nation’s poorest citizens will come to a halt on Saturday, the result of the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history. It will be the first time the benefit has been interrupted since it began more than six decades ago.

More than 3.5 million low-income Texans are among the more than 40 million Americans receiving Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) payments each month. With Democrats demanding that Congress address expiring health insurance subsidies and Republicans refusing to negotiate until the government reopens, the parties have been locked in a stalemate over government funding for close to a month.

The USDA notified states that if the shutdown did not end by Oct. 27, SNAP benefits would b

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