Monthly assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, will not be sent to low-income households, including veterans, Nov. 1 unless Congress agrees to a short-term spending bill, according to the Department of Agriculture. The USDA stated it will not use emergency funds Congress set aside to cover the program during the government shutdown. (Allison Dinner/AP)
WASHINGTON — Monthly food stamps to more than 1.2 million low-income veterans will end Saturday, as funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, is scheduled to run out without a vote from Congress to pass a short-term spending bill that will fund government programs.
SNAP benefits — which help offset the costs of basic food items for more than 42 million Americans — will not go out next month, the Department of Agriculture announced on its website. The federal government administers funds for the SNAP program with states managing programs.
“The well has run dry,” according to a notice President Donald Trump’s administration posted on the USDA website. The notice blamed the pending cancellation of food assistance dollars on policy proposals by Democratic lawmakers that have stalled a short-term government funding bill.
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” according to the USDA statement. “They can continue to hold out for health care 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.”
The majority of SNAP recipients are children, seniors and people with disabilities who are eligible for the program based on income. About a third of veterans who qualify for the food assistance are men over the age of 65. Forty percent are disabled.
Veterans may face barriers to employment such as having service-connected disabilities or no work experience beyond military service, according to the nonprofit Center on Budget Policies and Priorities. “Many younger veterans are highly skilled, but civilian employers often undervalue their military experience,” the center said in an April 2025 report on SNAP assistance for veterans.
Adrian Anthony is a 43-year-old fully disabled Army veteran who served in Iraq. Anthony said he meets the federal guidelines for SNAP benefits yet does not qualify for the assistance in his home state of Georgia.
“In Georgia, you can’t get SNAP if you’re a fully disabled veteran because payments (from the Department of Veterans Affairs) are counted as income,” said Anthony, who served in the Army from 2000 to 2004. States have flexibility in adjusting SNAP eligibility criteria, application processes and work rules, according to the House Committee on Agriculture.
The federal government entered the 27th day of a shutdown Monday that has shuttered most government agencies and furloughed millions of employees. Congress has a rainy-day fund to cover unexpected SNAP shortfalls.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., sent a letter to Brooke Rollins, USDA secretary, urging the agency to release the contingency funds to pay for food stamps in November. The letter was signed by 45 Democratic senators. But the USDA stated in a memo that it would block the emergency funds.
The agency stated that “contingency” dollars can only be used to cover shortfalls in SNAP appropriations but cannot pay for the entire monthly program over a government shutdown. The memo was first disclosed last week by Axios — a political news site.
Many federal employees who were sent home without pay in the government shutdown that started Oct. 1 also are applying for food assistance and other federal benefits. Food banks report an uptick in requests for groceries from furloughed workers.
“Every day this shutdown drags on, families have to make the devastating decision of how to balance” paying for basics like groceries and health care, said Danny Tsoi of New York, a furloughed federal worker and Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan.
