(The Hill) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) emailed grocery stores prohibiting them from offering discounts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients amid the government shutdown.

The email, shared Sunday by MSNBC’s Catherine Rampell to the social media platform X, said that grocery stores “must offer eligible goods at the same prices and on the same terms and conditions” to SNAP recipients.

National Grocers Association (NGA) Vice President David Cutler confirmed to The Hill Monday that the email was sent to grocers. The NGA represents over 21,000 independent grocery stores around the country.

The Sunday notice states that unless a store has a waiver allowing it to bypass the program’s equal treatment requirement, “offering discounts or services only to S

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