How a Government Shutdown Affects SNAP and Other Food Benefits

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What a government shutdown does to food benefits depends on whether the money is already on a household’s card. In October 2025, during a federal shutdown, Connecticut told households in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that benefits already loaded on their cards would stay usable until the government reopened. A new monthly deposit is another matter: it depends on federal money being available and follows the state’s payment schedule.

How many people use SNAP

SNAP, known previously as food stamps, served 42.1 million people a month on average in fiscal 2025. For now, the government is funded until December 11, 2026.

SNAP delivers monthly benefits on an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. In fiscal 2025, SNAP served an average of 42.1 million people per month at a federal cost of $101.7 billion, with benefits averaging $187.94 per person per month. Those averages describe fiscal 2025; they do not count the people receiving benefits on any given day of a shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) counted 36,352,716 participants in June 2026 in its monthly table; fiscal 2026 data are preliminary and subject to revision. In September 2026, USDA revised earlier months’ counts, many of them downward, the Food Research & Action Center reported. CRS says the July 2025 law expanded the population subject to SNAP work requirements and made it harder for areas of states to qualify for waivers. The Food Research & Action Center attributes the steep decline after July 2025 to that law and also reports substantial downward data revisions. Neither national count tells a household the amount on its card or the date of its next payment.

How a future SNAP payment gets funded

SNAP benefits are fully federally financed now, while states certify eligibility and issue benefits. Current law requires some states to start paying part of SNAP benefit costs on October 1, 2027, with delayed starts for some states with high payment error rates. States also set their own monthly payment schedules, so the first day of a shutdown is not automatically every household’s payment day. A family whose regular payment is due later in the month has a different immediate question from one whose payment is due tomorrow.

State administrative costs have a separate federal share. The federal share of state administrative costs fell from 50 percent to 25 percent on October 1, 2026, the start of fiscal 2027. That change concerns administration, not the benefits themselves; it does not mean a household’s benefit is cut by 25 percent.

The Food and Nutrition Act requires that eligible households be paid benefits set by a formula, but only with money Congress has appropriated. During a lapse in funding, the gap that causes a shutdown, federal law generally bars agencies from committing money that has not been appropriated, though it does not require every agency function to stop.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says USDA may use available money in the SNAP contingency fund to pay benefits when a year’s benefits cost more than the annual appropriation or when that appropriation is unavailable because of a lapse. That is a source of lawful funding, not a guarantee of unlimited benefits. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) says whether benefits continue, and for how long, depends on leftover or contingency funds, whether a temporary funding law was in place beforehand and what it said about SNAP, how USDA carries that law out, and any funding from outside the annual appropriations process.

WIC and school meals need their own answer

USDA says the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) serves low-income pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children under five at nutritional risk. It offers supplemental foods, nutrition and breastfeeding information, and referrals to health care and social services. For a local application or service question, find the state WIC agency through USAGov.

WIC relies on discretionary funding: Congress determines its funding level through the annual appropriations process. CRS explains that WIC and SNAP have different authorizing laws, funding mechanisms and appropriations accounts, so how long benefits and services continue may differ between the two. For WIC, ask the provider or state agency what is operating locally before assuming the SNAP timeline applies.

USDA describes the National School Lunch Program as a federal, state and local partnership: the federal government sets rules and supplies funding, state agencies monitor the program, and school food authorities operate it. CRS says most federal child-nutrition funding reaches schools as per-meal reimbursements through states, supported by annual appropriations. Ask the school’s meal office or district what meals it will serve.

If a payment or application is in question

For a new application, contact the state or local SNAP office. Depending on the state, applications may be accepted online, in person, by mail or by fax. Federal rules ordinarily call for a decision on eligibility and a chance to receive benefits within 30 days of filing. A household that qualifies for expedited service must have benefits available on its EBT card by the seventh calendar day after filing. Expedited service covers households with less than $150 in gross monthly income and no more than $100 in liquid resources; destitute migrant or seasonal farmworker households with no more than $100 in liquid resources; or households whose gross monthly income plus liquid resources are less than their monthly rent or mortgage and utility costs. These deadlines govern application processing; payments still require available federal funding.

If the period a household was approved for, its certification period, is ending, use the renewal application and deadline in the state agency’s notice rather than assuming a shutdown extends them. Federal rules require a state recertification application with a new signature and date.

If the normal office or online channel is interrupted, contact the state SNAP agency to confirm how to submit the form and whether it was received. Households must also report required changes under the rules that apply to their case.

For a missing payment, check the EBT balance on a store receipt, in an available state app or with the state SNAP office. Then ask that office whether the cause is something in the household’s own case, the state’s regular payment date or a broader funding interruption.

When a state agency denies, reduces or stops a household’s SNAP benefits, the household can ask the state SNAP agency for a fair hearing, an appeal of the decision. A household can make that request orally or in writing; federal rules generally allow it for an agency action or benefit loss in the preceding 90 days.

What an earlier shutdown taught about timing

The partial federal shutdown that ran from December 2018 into January 2019 offers a concrete example. On January 8, 2019, USDA announced that it would issue February SNAP benefits early. It instructed states to request and issue them by January 20. A household that received February’s benefits in January then faced a longer wait than usual for its next payment.

USDA’s February 1, 2019 guidance told states to plan to issue March benefits within 40 days of the early February payment, or as close to that as possible. Georgia had issued February benefits on Jan. 14; it then announced half of March’s benefit around March 2 and the other half on households’ normal March dates. The state was managing a long gap created by an early payment, not describing a universal shutdown rule.

In a September 5, 2019 decision, GAO concluded USDA had improperly relied on the expired continuing resolution, a temporary funding law, for the early February benefits. GAO said USDA had some or all of a $3 billion contingency fund available during the lapse but did not charge the February benefits to it. That is why the 2019 calendar cannot be promised to families in a later lapse.

On October 24, 2025, USDA suspended November SNAP payments and said the contingency reserve could not support regular benefits after the annual appropriation expired. A federal court in Rhode Island ordered the government on October 31 to provide either full November benefits or partial benefits using the contingency fund. USDA then announced it would use its contingency funds to provide reduced November benefits.

On November 6, that court ordered full November benefits using contingency funds and other USDA funds. The Supreme Court temporarily paused the full-payment orders while the government sought a stay on appeal. After Congress restored funding on November 12, USDA told states to promptly issue full November benefits and return December payments to normal operations. In that guidance, USDA said Congress had replenished the contingency fund but warned that it did not expect the money to cover full November 2026 benefits if appropriations lapsed.

Who can keep benefits funded

Congress can fund agencies through a regular full-year appropriation or a continuing resolution. Both the House and Senate must pass the same funding measure and send it to the president, who can sign or veto it. After the 43-day shutdown in 2025, Congress enacted the full-year fiscal 2026 Agriculture Appropriations Act on November 12, 2025.

One bill sought to protect SNAP benefits in advance. Senator Josh Hawley introduced the Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 on October 21, 2025. Its text would have made Treasury funds available as needed to keep SNAP benefits uninterrupted during an unfunded period in fiscal 2026. The bill was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee the same day, the last action recorded. It was a proposal for that fiscal year, not a standing protection for every future shutdown. A law like it would move part of the decision about benefits out of the next emergency negotiation and into law ahead of time, if Congress chose to pass it.

What to check now

A continuing resolution enacted on September 2, 2026, funds government operations through December 11, 2026. Until then, agriculture programs are funded rather than in a lapse. What happens next depends on what Congress does before the resolution expires. CRS’s fiscal 2027 Agriculture Appropriations report tracks the measure and a timeline of legislative actions; a later law can change the answer.

Check the card balance and the state’s payment date, then ask the state SNAP office about any missing payment or application. For a question about the next federal funding law, find a senator or representative through USAGov.