Vickie Southern looks down at a message on her phone stating the discontinuing of SNAP benefits, after preparing club sandwiches for the Haynes Middle School cheerleaders and football players, at her home, in Nashville Tenn., on Oct. 29, 2025.

WASHINGTON – As the government shutdown approaches a month long with no end in sight, federal lawmakers and state officials are scrambling to blunt the pain of missing services such as the first lapse Nov. 1 in SNAP food assistance since the program was created.

In the Senate, Democrats tried Oct. 29 to extend benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to avoid starving its 42 million low-income beneficiaries. But Republicans blocked the maneuver by arguing that Democrats should join them in reopening the entire government.

Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states filed a federal lawsuit in Boston on Oct. 28 aiming to force the Trump administration to fund the nation’s largest food aid program despite the shutdown. The lawsuit argues suspending SNAP benefits is avoidable, arbitrary and violates the Food and Nutrition Act, which requires that “assistance under this program shall be furnished to all eligible households."

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston will hear arguments Oct. 30 urging her to force the U.S. Agriculture Department to use $6 billion from its contingency funds to pay for SNAP. The program costs about $8 billion monthly.

Joel Berg, the CEO of Hunger Free America, has warned the impending crisis will be the "greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression."

Here are the latest updates on the shutdown:

Recipients, states scramble to put food on the table

Taylour Grant is trying to keep her four kids from finding out there won't be money for food in a few days.

The 29-year-old former medical assistant in Tampa, Florida, hasn't been able to work since May because one of her children, who has autism, needed her full attention. So she doesn't have a cushion to replace the money she's gotten the first of every month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps.

“I try not to … show what's happening on the forefront because of my kids, but I mean, ultimately, what? What can we do? It is out of our hands,” said Grant, whose oldest is 14 and youngest, just 1. “I haven't been working, things are getting behind. I'm already facing eviction. I have other bills piled up."

When SNAP benefits don't arrive for Grant and 42 million other Americans on Nov. 1, it will be the first time that food safety net money has been delayed in the program's 60-year history.

Read more about how recipients and state officials are scrambling to figure out how to put food on the table with just a few days' notice.

--Sarah D. Wire

Johnson says ‘the money doesn’t exist’ to fund SNAP

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said there is no legal avenue to allocate money to keep food samps funded as benefits are set to lapse for the first time in the programs history.

“When it comes to SNAP, some of the Democrats have argued you can use this contingency fund but the truth is there is no legal mechanism to do it,” Johnson said during a daily press conference. “There’s no such legal avenue to give SNAP funding now.”

SNAP has been funded through every government shutdown, including the longest shutdown during Trump’s first presidential term in 2019 that lasted 35 days. More than 42 million people are on food stamps, and some states are coming up with contingencies to help families who will not see their benefits come Nov. 1.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture initially released a contingency plan that said the agency has a reserve of contingency funds, which can be used to pay SNAP benefits directly. However, the agency now says contingency money is available only "to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits."

“The president has lamented this,” Johnson said of SNAP benefits. “He has informed USDA and everybody, do as best you can. But the money doesn’t exist to do it.”

– Rebecca Morin

Are Medicare and Medicaid impacted by the shutdown?

If you have Medicare or Medicaid, you should still be able to see your doctor.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will continue operations during the shutdown, the agency said, adding that it has funding for Medicaid through the end of this year.

However, other issues could surface as the shutdown drags on.

Experts warn that doctors, hospitals and other health providers could see delays in Medicare and Medicaid payments during a longer-term shutdown.

-- Rebecca Morin

Mayors search for ways to replace SNAP benefits

Mayors across the country are urging U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollings to prevent a disruption in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food for 42 million low-income people and is scheduled to run out of funding Nov. 1.

“Disrupting SNAP means American children will go hungry,” said Quinton Lucas, mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. “Families will miss meals, food pantries will reach their breaking point, and local communities will bear the burden of Washington's paralysis – once again, failing the American people."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said 60,000 of his residents rely on SNAP benefits to “put food on the table and make ends meet.”

“Cutting or restricting this important support doesn’t just harm individuals – it harms entire communities,” Frey said.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors urged Rollins in a letter Oct. 23 to prevent a lapse in funding.

“The anticipated disruption to SNAP will not only increase poverty but also weaken ongoing city efforts to promote food security, improve public health, and support local economies,” wrote Tom Cochran, the conference’s executive director, and Matt Tuerk, mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

--Bart Jansen

Nevada officials shift funding to provide food aid

As Congress remains deadlocked over reopening the federal government, states are scrambling to provide food to low-income families whose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are set to lapse Nov. 1.

Top Nevada officials voted Oct. 29 to approve $30 million for food banks for the anticipated suspension of federal SNAP benefits, but that amount covers only a third of the monthly benefits.

The state Board of Examiners – Gov. Joe Lombardo, Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar – agreed to tap an emergency fund to provide the food assistance as a short-term remedy. A state legislative panel must still vote on the funding shift.

“l voted for this funding today, but let's be clear, this is a Band-Aid and kids are still going to struggle to be fed,” Ford said in a statement.

--Bart Jansen

Bipartisan talks for options to end shutdown gather steam

In recent days, several lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, have suggested there's been a renewed vigor in bipartisan back-channeling among rank-and-file lawmakers.

The political movement comes as shutdown-related disruptions are multiplying, and as President Donald Trump is set to return from a weeklong trip to Asia on Oct. 30.

The latest pressure to end the shutdown came Oct. 29, when the Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing issues as it ordered a ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport, an important transportation hub. All flights to Los Angeles International Airport were briefly halted for similar reasons over the weekend.

"There's been a significant uptick in bipartisan conversations," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "That's the good news."

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed, leaving agencies working at mere fractions of their usual capacities.

Democratic SNAP funding bill blocked by GOP senator

A bill to keep funds flowing to food stamps and nutritional programs for low-income women, infants, and children was blocked on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Money for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, could run out soon, even with a recent emergency cash infusion earlier this month.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján asked the Senate to pass through a procedural step known as unanimous consent his bill that would fund SNAP and WIC through the government shutdown.

“Pass this bill now,” Luján said on the Senate floor. “Fund SNAP, fund WIC, before this hunger crisis hits our communities.”

Majority Leader John Thune forcefully objected to it on the Senate floor, calling for lawmakers to instead pass the House-passed temporary funding bill.

“The senator from New Mexico is absolutely right. SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country, and we’ve tried to do that 13 times. And you voted no 13 times,” Thune said.

“This isn’t a political game,” he added. “These are real people’s lives we are talking about, and you have all just figured out 29 days in that, oh, there may be some consequences?"

– Rebecca Morin

House staffers won't get paid Friday, memo says

Wages for staffers in the House of Representatives will be delayed until the government reopens, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday.

Their October paychecks were originally scheduled to be disbursed Friday.

Lawmakers in the House haven't taken a vote in weeks. They remain on an indefinite 48-hour return notice.

Shutdown could cost economy $7B to $14B: CBO

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown will cost the U.S. economy from $7 billion to $14 billion – depending whether the shutdown lasts another month – that will never be recovered.

CBO said in a Wednesday letter that the country’s economic activity will be lower because of the shutdown based on fewer services provided by hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, lower federal spending and reduced food assistance benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

“The reduction in output stemming from the time furloughed employees did not work will not be recovered,” CBO told House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.

The range of estimates on economic losses was based on the shutdown ending Oct. 29 to Nov. 26.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SNAP food benefits set to expire Nov. 1. Shutdown Day 30 live updates

Reporting by Zachary Schermele, Bart Jansen, Rebecca Morin and Terry Collins, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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