More than 90,000 people in New York’s 23rd Congressional District could lose their SNAP benefits in November due to the federal government shutdown.
Governor Kathy Hochul said the nearly three million residents in the state who receive federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits could lose access to those benefits on November 1. She said the Trump Administration has indicated to New York that it will not allow states to distribute federal funding for SNAP recipients.
Hochul said in a media release, “This is a deliberate and unprecedented decision intended to inflict pain on millions of hardworking American families — the federal government should instead do everything in its power to prioritize our most vulnerable and make funding available for this critical program. Instead, the Trump Administration is directing states to halt the process to issue monthly food benefits. Since SNAP is a federally-funded program, New York cannot backfill using state dollars.”
Approximately 42 million people receive SNAP benefits in the United States.
The federal government has been shut down since October 1. The shutdown is now the third-longest funding lapse in modern history, eclipsed only by the shutdowns of 1995 and 2018-19.
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