The battle over food stamps has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the fierce partisan clash over government spending.

Republicans in Congress are increasingly highlighting the imminent shortfall facing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in a bid to pressure Democrats to help end the ongoing shutdown. They say Democrats, by opposing the GOP’s stopgap spending bill, are threatening undue harm to some of the nation’s poorest people.

Democrats have countered with charges of hypocrisy, noting the Republicans’ long history of seeking to dismantle federal programs benefiting low-income people, including SNAP. They’re pointing, as recent evidence, to the steep cuts to SNAP adopted this year as part of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

The impasse is well-entrenched and the impacts on SNAP are already surfacing, as some states have stopped accepting new applications and others are warning that funding for benefits will dry up before month’s end.

If the shutdown extends into November, the impact would be even more severe for the more than 40 million low-income people who benefit from the nutrition subsidies. In the best-case shutdown scenario, those people are expected to receive smaller payments to help cover grocery bills. In the worst case, they will get nothing.

Indeed, a number of states are already warning that SNAP payments will cease altogether.

Those dynamics have heightened the warnings from advocates about the detrimental effects of withholding SNAP benefits in an already volatile economy, and........

© The Hill