USDA Won’t Use $6 Billion Emergency Reserve for SNAP Payments in November

At a West Milton, Ohio grocery store on October 21, 2025, a shopper surveys the produce section. Photo credit: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the $6 billion emergency contingency fund will not be used to finance SNAP benefit payments in November. An agency memorandum obtained by CNN indicates that about 42 million Americans stand to miss out on critical food assistance next month if officials’ positions do not change.

“Emergency contingency funds are legally not available to cover regular payments,”

The memo notes that SNAP reserves are intended to supplement regular monthly payments, but cannot fully cover them. The emergency contingency reserve is not provided to support regular payments in FY 2026, as allocations for regular payments are no longer planned under the current budget.

States will also not receive reimbursements if they use their own funds to make payments, according to the memorandum Axios previously reported.

Political crisis and consequences

The lack of adequate funding for food assistance is intensifying pressure on Congress to end the federal shutdown that began on October 1 by passing a spending package. Democratic lawmakers say they will not support a short-term spending bill unless it includes extending the enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins told reporters last week that food stamps could run out by the end of the month.

The agency had previously told states that funds are not enough to fully cover November payments if the funding shutdown continues, and asked them to refrain from making payments until further guidance.

Instead, SNAP supporters and some Democrats argue that USDA is obligated to use the emergency contingency fund – billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is insufficient, which remain available during a shutdown – and propose finding other sources of funds to cover the difference, as the administration previously did, prioritizing, among other things, military needs.

“Secretary Rollins’s statement that the Trump administration will not be able to ensure November SNAP payments during the shutdown is an unequivocal falsehood,”

“In fact, the administration is legally required to use emergency contingency funds – billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when SNAP funding is insufficient, which remain available during a shutdown,” said Sharon Parrot, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a former official at the Office of Management and Budget, in a statement on Thursday.

In the shutdown contingency plan, which was later removed online, the agency stated: “Congress’s intent is clear: SNAP operations must continue” and noted that the plan could be used to pay participants in the event of mid-year disruptions.

About one-eighth of the U.S. population receives help through SNAP. It is one of the key elements of the social safety net: on average about $188 per month per person (as of May). The Food Stamp Program remains vulnerable due to political divisions on Capitol Hill and a government shutdown.

The WIC program, which supports the nutrition of pregnant women, new parents, and young children, was close to exhausting funding at the start of the month. However, the administration redirected $300 million in tariff receipts, which would normally fund child nutrition, to support WIC. According to the National WIC Association, these funds should last until the end of the month.

This is not the first time that food assistance has been threatened by political stalemates. During the longest government shutdown in recent years in 2018, the USDA initially said payments would run out at the end of January, but later decided to use shutdown payment provisions to cover February payments. This workaround turned out not to be necessary, as the shutdown ended earlier.