As Congress is set to break the record this week for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, two federal judges ruled Oct. 31 that the Trump administration must continue to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the shutdown, using emergency reserve funds.
However, the judges left it up to the administration to decide whether to fund the program partially or in full for November, and it remains unclear how quickly the funding will be reinstated — creating uncertainty for the 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP to feed their families and whose payments stopped on Nov. 1.
