Trump administration refuses to tap into contingency funds as nearly 42 million set to lose food assistance

Starting on November 1, nearly 42 million people could lose access to food aid in the United States. With the government shutdown ongoing for almost a month, the US government claims that funds are running out for several crucial social services including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Trump administration has blamed Democratic Party lawmakers for funds running out, but has refused to tap into the contingency funds for SNAP benefits, which total roughly USD 5 billion. 

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry,” reads a message on the front page of the website of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”

In a memo obtained by Politico on Friday, October 24, the USDA will not tap into contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits afloat. The memo claims that these billions in additional funds are not “legally available.”

Dottie Rosenbaum, senior fellow and director of Federal SNAP Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, writes that this claim by the USDA “stands in opposition to the law and prior practice, including by the Trump Administration itself.” Rosenbaum references prior Trump administration practice “including as recently as a few weeks ago in the Agriculture Department (USDA) Lapse of Funding Plan, which the agency has since removed from its website.”

“Under past shutdowns, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, SNAP benefits have always been provided using available funding sources to prevent a break in benefits,” Rosenbaum writes.

Opposition builds to Trump’s refusal to tap into contingency funds

Changes in SNAP benefits have been shown to be directly tied to the well-being of those living in poverty. In 2021, the USDA finally revised the Thrifty Food Plan, the benchmark for SNAP benefits, leading to a long-awaited 21% boost in assistance. The effects were felt deeply: research estimates that the bump kept nearly 3 million people out of poverty and reduced the number of children living in poverty by 1.3 million.

Progressives and grassroots organizations have condemned Trump’s refusal to tap into contingency funds. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich denounced the president on X for not tapping into contingency funds, but instead finding a way to “bail out Argentina, conduct extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, and build a vanity ballroom.”

“Somehow, the Trump administration has hit a new low. They’re choosing to ignore their legal duty to distribute SNAP’s contingency funding, so they’ll let 42 million families go hungry ahead of Thanksgiving,” said Lily Roberts, managing director for Inclusive Growth at the Center for American Progress, in a statement. “They’re building a gilded ballroom and demolishing history while they take food away from hungry kids and let health insurance premium costs spike.”

Some on the left have criticized both major parties for this crisis. “The right wing’s calculation is simple and horrific: If they can cause widespread suffering by denying tens of millions of people food, then that will create enough pressure on Democrats that they will agree to pass a funding bill that doesn’t protect our healthcare,” reads a statement by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “The outcome of the fight around the government shutdown will impact the lives of virtually every working class person in this country. We can’t leave this in the hands of Democratic Party politicians – they’ve shown time and time again that their instinct is to surrender rather than take a stand.”