SNAP benefits for November are being suspended

FNS has issued directives to States to notify beneficiaries that, due to the shutdown, SNAP benefits for November are being suspended.  Depending on when and if the shutdown ends, those benefits may be delayed, or not come at all.  Of course, this is a choice of this Administration, and does not have to happen.  The USDA has a multi-year contingency fund to continue to pay for administration and benefits in the event of a shutdown or other funding crisis.  They only need the order from on high to tap into those funds and keep America's elderly, disabled and impoverished fed and healthy.  Block grant programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Medicaid are not currently being affected.

Coming up on Thanksgiving like this will make this blatant hostage-taking hurt even worse.  Food banks are already stressed at this time of year, and having to pick up the slack from no food stamps may break many of them.  If you know anybody on food stamps, encourage them to stock up on what they can, visit food banks early, and help them out with extra food next month.

And call your Reps and Senators and tell them to demand that Trump stop holding the elderly, disabled or poor hostage to his petty budget fight with Democrats, and release the contingency funds the way Congress intended when they set them up.  And if you are fortunate enough to be represented by a Democrat, maybe remind them this would be an excellent thing to campaign on come next year.  Republicans are the party of maximum pain and will throw anybody and everybody under the bus to get their way.