The federal government is on day 29 of a shutdown. One critical consequence of the continued shutdown is the pausing of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) at the federal level.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website says that November payments will not be sent out for 42 million SNAP recipients across the nation. For Pennsylvania, this means one in six citizens— around 2 million people— will not receive SNAP benefits until the government shutdown is resolved.

On Cctober 10, the USDA told Pennsylvania’s Human Services department that there is not enough money to fully fund the SNAP for all 42 million Americans in November. With that notice, the department then said that zero November SNAP payments would be sent out.

“We were directly ordered from the federal government to stop all automated activity that state SNAP agencies do in the background to prepare to issue those payments,” said Hoa Pham, deputy secretary of income maintenance for Pennsylvania’s Dep. of Human Services.

Pham said there has been no clarification on why the USDA chose to do zero payments.

“You could speculate on.. when they say they don’t have enough money for full benefits, maybe that implies, maybe they have enough money for some benefits,” Pham said.

“We don’t know the answer to that question. And attempts to get clarity and communication from USDA, I think, have been somewhat spotty. I think in no small part because due to the federal government shutdown,” Pham said. “Employees have been furloughed at this time.”

The SNAP program does have a contingency reserve fund. The Trump administration has previously approved using that fund for benefits during government shutdowns. However, in a memo last week, USDA told states it would not use the funds for November payments because the fund should be kept aside for “real emergencies”.

“I don’t know what could be more emergent than 42 million people losing access to food,” Pham said.

Multiple states, including Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro, filed a lawsuit arguing that the USDA can and should use the funds.

At this time though, no SNAP funding will be released until the government shutdown ends. When that does happen, Pham says administrative preparations have already been completed to ensure a quick turn around for benefits.

“All of that work of preparing those files and getting them ready to, essentially hit pay— is already done,” Pham said. “We’re ready. We’re ready to go.”

In Pennsylvania, SNAP benefits are distributed during the first 10 business days of the month. Under normal circumstances, the first payment batch would be sent on November 3rd. If benefits are delayed, it will still take 10 days to cycle through all of the payments for the state once SNAP is funded again.

“We know that 2 million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP to feed themselves, their children. Quite a few of SNAP recipients in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are elderly individuals or people who are disabled,” Pham said. “These are real, vulnerable people who will not have payments come November 3rd.”

If Pennsylvanians have SNAP funds leftover from October, those can be used in November.

“If someone is an active SNAP recipient, has that card, and has leftover funds from October 2025, from September 2025, or prior— they can still make purchases after November 1st,” Pham said.

Pennsylvania has a Frequently Asked Questions page that anyone can access if they have SNAP benefit questions if the shutdown continues.

Elected officials are urging communities to donate food, volunteer at food pantries, and seek out ways to support their neighbors as delays loom.

During the last government shutdown in 2018/2019, which lasted 35 days, SNAP benefits were never paused. The Trump administration allowed state’s to issue combined payments and pre-issue the payments for the upcoming month. After the fact, there was some legal counsel that opposed that method for sending out benefits.