Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections. The looming expiration of ACA subsidies could affect the 2026 midterm.
So could the SNAP cliff. Helena Bottemiller Evich at Food Fix:
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday outside the White House that SNAP will run out of funds: “We’re going to run out of money in two weeks. So you’re talking about millions and millions of vulnerable families, of hungry families, that are not going to have access to these programs because of this shutdown.”
The Trump administration was able to find a fix for WIC, but that program needs somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-500 million per month to operate. SNAP is on a whole different level, with monthly costs more like $8 billion per month. That’s real money, even for USDA, which has more spending leeway (and frankly slush funds) than many federal agencies.
Anti-hunger advocates are raising alarms about all of this right now.
“USDA must ensure that funding is available for SNAP so that participants continue to receive benefits as they have done during previous shutdowns,” said Crystal FitzSimons, president of Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). “Just as the administration has found ways to protect its other priorities during this shutdown, it must also act with the same urgency to protect SNAP. USDA should utilize its contingency reserves and any additional funding sources to ensure that benefits are not disrupted.”
Contingency funds: There is a SNAP contingency fund to help bridge the gap during debacles like this — and let’s be clear, this is a debacle — but I’m hearing conflicting things about how much is available in that pot. Multiple sources told me it’s around $6 billion. But some in Washington are worried the fund is lower than that, closer to $4 billion. Either way, it’s short of the more than $8 billion USDA probably needs for November benefits.
Lots of beneficiaries live in Republican states:
