(The Hill) — New Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) rules are going into effect on Saturday, even as uncertainty reigns regarding whether benefits will be issued through November.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) website, where millions of Americans can review their options and apply, details how “the well has run dry” to issue program benefits. Atop the page, the USDA blames Senate Democrats for benefits not being issued starting Saturday.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 13 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” the page reads. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. 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.”
While SNAP benefits will not be issued until funding continues, President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act also places new restrictions into effect starting Saturday. These changes are expected to push some people out of the program after an estimated $186 billion federal spending cut over the next decade.
Able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) could see the biggest change in needing to prove they work at least 80 hours a month, are pursuing an education or are in a training program to remain qualified for SNAP. Should they not have proof, they will receive SNAP benefits for a total of three months maximum.
Additionally, any able adults under 65 must prove they are working to continue receiving benefits. Parents with dependents under 14 are now exempt from the work requirements, whereas before it applied to parents with dependents under 18 years old. Young adults, veterans and homeless people must now meet work requirements to receive over three months of benefits.
Another change in effect will impact “non-citizen eligibility for SNAP” for immigrants, including non-citizen U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian entrants and those who are undocumented.
State agencies will have to review “household circumstances to take appropriate action” during an immigrant’s certification for benefits period before notifying that individual that they are no longer eligible for SNAP, according to the USDA’s website.
Refugees granted asylum and human trafficking survivors, meanwhile, will lose their benefits, according to a memo from Oregon’s Department of Human Services.
What remains an issue is if the USDA will use its contingency funding to allow SNAP benefits to be paid for through November. On Friday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from cutting off SNAP benefits. U.S. District Judge John McConnell rejected the argument that emergency funding can only be used for those impacted by natural disasters.
“SNAP benefits have never, until now, been terminated,” McConnell said at a hearing. “And the United States has, in fact, admitted that the contingency funds are appropriately used during a shutdown and that occurred in 2019.”
There is around $5.25 billion reserved to cover the program in November, but it does not fully cover the $9.2 billion that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has said the federal government would have to spend for the program.
On Friday, Rollins told reporters that Democrats were wrong in suggesting that the contingency fund could be used.
“If today, say for example Democrats say, ‘Oh, never mind, sorry, we’ll reopen the government,’ and SNAP flows, Hurricane Melissa or one of the hurricanes hits, that’s the contingency fund that we would use to send more money into the vulnerable communities that are harmed by a specific event like a hurricane,” Rollins said.
“But it is a contingency fund that can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved,” she continued. “And listen, even if it could flow, it doesn’t even cover half of the month of November. So here we are again, in two weeks having the exact same conversation.”
Later on Friday, Trump indicated that he would fund SNAP, but noted that they would be delayed for the month of November.
“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT,” he continued. “Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”
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