BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana Legislature passed a concurrent resolution urging the Landry administration to use state funds to cover the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program after a federal government shutdown threatened to suspend benefits for more than 800,000 residents.

The administration warned recipients last week that a federal shutdown meant no SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, would be loaded on their cards for Nov. Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the percentage of residents receiving the benefit, with more than 18% of the population, many of them children, relying on the aid. The benefits cost approximately $150 million per month.

Last week, the House passed a concurrent resolution "to urge and request the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health t

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