{"id":15092,"date":"2025-10-21T01:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/15092\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T01:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T01:05:07","slug":"newsom-warns-californians-snap-benefits-could-be-delayed-because-of-federal-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/15092\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom warns Californians’ SNAP benefits could be delayed because of federal shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stark warning<\/a> Monday that food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could be delayed starting Nov. 1 if the ongoing federal shutdown does not end by Thursday.<\/p>\n

The benefits, issued under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and formerly called food stamps, include federally funded benefits loaded onto CalFresh cards. They support some 5.5 million Californians.<\/p>\n

Newsom blamed the potential SNAP disruption \u2014 and the shutdown more broadly \u2014 on President Trump, and slammed the timing of the potential cutoff just as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s failure to open the federal government is now endangering people\u2019s lives and making basic needs like food more expensive \u2014 just as the holidays arrive,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cIt is long past time for Republicans in Congress to grow a spine, stand up to Trump, and deliver for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House responded by blaming the shutdown on Democrats, as it has done before.<\/p>\n

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said the \u201cDemocrats\u2019 decision to shut down the government is hurting Americans across the country,\u201d and that Democrats \u201ccan choose to reopen the government at any point\u201d by voting for a continuing resolution to fund the government as budget negotiations continue, which she said they repeatedly did during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cNewscum should urge his Democrat pals to stop hurting the American people,\u201d Jackson said, using a favorite Trump insult for Newsom. \u201cThe Trump Administration is working day and night to mitigate the pain Democrats are causing, and even that is upsetting the Left, with many Democrats criticizing the President\u2019s effort to pay the troops and fund food assistance for women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans also have blamed the shutdown and resulting interruptions to federal programs on Democrats, who are refusing to vote for a Republican-backed funding measures based in large part on Republican decisions to eliminate subsidies for healthcare plans relied on by millions of Americans.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s warning about SNAP benefits followed similar alerts from other states<\/a> on both sides of the political aisle, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned state agencies in an Oct. 10 letter that the shutdown may interrupt funding for the benefits.<\/p>\n

States have to take action to issue November benefits before the month ends, so the shutdown would have to end sooner than Nov. 1 for the benefits to be available in then.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office said Californians could see their benefits interrupted or delayed if the shutdown is not ended by Thursday. The Texas Health and Human Services Department warned<\/a> that SNAP benefits for November \u201cwon\u2019t be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past Oct. 27.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office said that a cutoff of funds would impact federally funded CalFresh benefits<\/a>, but also some other state-funded benefits. More than 63% of SNAP recipients in California are children or elderly people, Newsom\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n

In her own statement, First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom said, \u201cGovernment should be measured by how we protect people\u2019s lives, their health, and their well-being. Parents and caregivers should not be forced to choose between buying groceries or paying bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

States were already gearing up for other changes to SNAP eligibility based on the Republican-passed Big Beautiful Bill, which set new limits on SNAP benefits, including for non-working adults. Republicans have argued that such restrictions will encourage more able-bodied adults to get back into the workforce to support their families themselves.<\/p>\n

Many Democrats and advocacy organizations that work to protect low-income families and children have argued that restricting SNAP benefits has a disproportionately large impact on some of the most vulnerable people in the country, including poor children.<\/p>\n

According to USDA, about 41.7 million Americans were served by SNAP benefits per month in fiscal 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion. The USDA has some contingency funding it can utilize to continue benefits in the short term, but does not have enough to cover all monthly benefits, advocates said. <\/p>\n

Andrew Cheyne, managing director of public policy at the advocacy group End Child Poverty California, urged the USDA to utilize its contingency funding and any other funding stream possible to prevent a disruption to SNAP benefits, which he said would be \u201cdisastrous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalFresh is a lifeline for 5.5 million Californians who rely on the program to eat. That includes 2 million children. It is unconscionable that we are only days away from children and families not knowing where their next meal is going to come from,\u201d Cheyne said. <\/p>\n

He said the science is clear that \u201ceven a brief period of food insecurity has long-term consequences for children\u2019s growth and development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, said a disruption would be \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe speak out for the needs of kids and families, and kids need food \u2014 basic support to live and function and go to school,\u201d he said. \u201cSo this could be really devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Jenny Gold contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stark warning Monday that food assistance benefits for millions of low-income Californians could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11432,7,9,8,4488,3409,1751,1431,413,405,3290,346,13049,592,3020,1748,1292,13048],"class_list":["post-15092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-americans","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-californians","tag-child","tag-democrats","tag-family","tag-food","tag-government","tag-newsom","tag-office","tag-other-state","tag-people","tag-president-trump","tag-republicans","tag-shutdown","tag-snap-benefit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}