As many as 1.4 million Georgians who rely on federal food assistance will lose their benefits starting Nov. 1 if the government shutdown has not ended.
The Trump administration confirmed Sunday, Oct. 26, that it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) flowing into November. That program helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries, according to the Associated Press.
The Georgia Department of Human Services announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture informed the state that there is “insufficient funding” to cover November payments for the SNAP program, which is 100% federally funded and provides food assistance to about one in 10 Georgia residents.
If the shutdown is not resolved soon, SNAP electronic benefit transfer cards will not work beginning Nov. 1, according to DHS. Even if a shutdown deal were reached immediately, the time required to process the payments and make them available to recipients would likely delay benefits. The state agency advised recipients to use existing funds on their cards now and plan ahead.
The federal government shutdown began on Oct. 1 after lawmakers failed to approve a funding bill before the beginning of the new fiscal year. U.S. House Republicans passed a stopgap spending bill that would have funded the government until November, but that is stuck in the Senate, where Democrats say they won’t vote for a continuing resolution until Republicans agree to extend tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for people who buy their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute urged the USDA to take immediate steps to release available contingency funds to cover at least partial payments for the program, which serves more than 640,000 children in the state.
“If the administration can cover full or even partial SNAP benefits for November, it provides some certainty that families and individuals can go to the grocery store and buy the essentials and maybe something for Thanksgiving,” Ife Finch Floyd, the institute’s director of economic justice, said Thursday.
But the USDA on Friday announced that it would not use contingency funds to provide food assistance benefits, stating that the government shutdown occurred before SNAP funding for the new fiscal year was enacted.
The USDA has about $6 billion in contingency funds, enough to cover about two-thirds of one month’s national SNAP benefits. GBPI also suggested that the USDA use its discretionary authority, as it did in early October for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, to secure additional resources to fully fund November benefits.
SNAP provides more than $3 billion annually to Georgia’s local economies and is critical for retailers statewide, according to GBPI. Usage is higher in rural areas, where about 17% of the population relies on the assistance, compared to 11% in metropolitan areas.