Millions of people who receive food stamp benefits are set to soon join furloughed federal workers in the ranks of those harmed by the federal government shutdown.
As the government shutdown approaches record length, low-income recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will see their benefits halted on Nov. 1 due to insufficient funds. The prospect of low-income families losing out on food aid will likely add pressure on members of Congress to find a way to reopen the government.
Sen. John Boozman (R-AK), who is chairman of the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, said that the loss of food stamps would represent a new level of fallout from the shutdown.
“I think so,” he told the Washington Examiner. “You’ve got millions of families that are being held hostage and the way to end it is for [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer (D-NY) to discontinue the shutdown.”
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To this point, the problems created by the shutdown have been minimal, in practical terms, for much of the population. The biggest losers, so far, are the 670,000 government workers who are currently furloughed without pay as the Senate struggles toward pass a resolution to reopen the government. However, the number of people receiving SNAP benefits is significantly higher.
Just under 42 million people in the U.S. received SNAP benefits last year, just over 12% of the population of the entire country. In fiscal 2024, those food stamp benefits averaged $187.20 per participant per month.
“I think this is where probably the squeeze is really felt, and I think it will apply pressure to both parties,” Jason Roe, a veteran Republican political consultant, told the Washington Examiner. “Now there is going to be a constituency that is important to both parties that is going to get squeezed.”
The constituency is increasingly important for Republicans, with blue-collar and working-class voters helping elect President Donald Trump to a second term last year.
Exit polls showed Trump gained a slightly larger share of the electorate of those earning less than $50,000 than then-Vice President Kamala Harris did and captured a majority of voters who have never earned a college degree.
“What I do think is this is a constituency that matters to the Republicans,” Roe said. “The working poor have been trending our direction. And Republicans need the working poor in 2026 to hold the House.”
And while 12% of the U.S. receives some SNAP benefits, some key swing states that are important for both Republicans and Democrats have large numbers of beneficiaries.
For instance, 15% of the Michigan population receives SNAP benefits. The corresponding shares are 13% in Georgia, 13% in North Carolina, 15% in Pennsylvania, and 15% in Nevada.
The current shutdown is fast approaching the record of 35 days, which was notched in early 2019 after starting in late 2018.
Wendell Primus, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who was a senior policy adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for healthcare and budget issues for nearly two decades, said that the longer the shutdown goes on, the more constituency groups will be affected if no action is taken.
Still, he said that both sides seem “still stuck in cement” and don’t foresee a solution to ending the government shutdown anytime soon. He said that how Republicans and Democrats handle the messaging on the SNAP snafu will determine which side benefits from the situation.
And, as of right now, there is no clear winner in the court of public opinion.
For instance, a recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 45% of registered voters think Republicans are more responsible for the shutdown, while 39% said that Democrats on Capitol Hill should take more of the blame. That is close to the survey’s margin of error.
“Right now, I think both sides think they’re winning, and until one side thinks they’re losing, I don’t see a quick resolution of any of this,” Primus said.
And some Democrats are arguing that the Trump administration’s move to withhold SNAP funding is illegal.
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, pointed out that there is a contingency fund for SNAP that should be dipped into to help SNAP beneficiaries. The administration is now arguing that the fund is not usable, which Kogan said is a course reversal.
As a result, a group of Democratic states is suing the Department of Agriculture and its secretary, Brooke Rollins, for not using the contingency fund.
“I think Democrats would say the Trump administration has some ability to not do the food stamp cuts right now, they have a contingency fund they could exploit or could use,” Primus told the Washington Examiner.
Still, more broadly, Republicans are blaming Democrats for the SNAP cuts. That is because Republicans in the House have already passed legislation to reopen the government, and GOP senators have repeatedly voted to open the government.
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But the Senate needs a 60-vote majority of lawmakers to reopen the government, and Democrats have dug their heels in and are demanding the reinstatement of expiring Obamacare subsidies. They hope to use the opportunity as leverage to get concessions from the GOP.
“Our Democrat colleagues should be recognizing that they really are impacting real people in their daily lives,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner. “SNAP benefits for a lot of people out there means they put food on the table.”
