How SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans could be saved during the shutdown

Amanda Becker

Washington Correspondent

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If the ongoing government shutdown extends into Saturday — and there is every indication that it will — funding will lapse for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps or SNAP, which helps feed some 42 million lower-income Americans.

It will be the first such disruption to the federally funded but state-administered safety net program that disproportionately feeds women, children, disabled people and the elderly since it was started in its current form in the 1960s.

That includes during previous government shutdowns. For example, during the longest shutdown in U.S. history — 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first administration — th