Pennsylvanians losing SNAP benefits amid federal shutdown

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits are on hold for Pennsylvanians because of the federal government shutdown.

A message posted to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services webpage announced that SNAP benefits were halted Oct. 16 and will not be paid until the federal government shutdown ends and funds are released to the commonwealth.

“Because Republicans in Washington, D.C., failed to pass a federal budget, causing the federal government shutdown, November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,” the message reads.

The partisan messaging comes after a slew of federal websites — under the control of a Republican administration headed by President Donald Trump — have blamed Democrats for the shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website blames “the Radical Left Democrat shutdown” for a lack of updates to its pages.

“Because of the Democrat shutdown, there are not enough funds to provide SNAP for 40 million Americans come Nov. 1,” USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in a social media post. “Democrats are putting free healthcare for illegal aliens and their political agenda ahead of food security for American families. Shameful.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said it will notify SNAP recipients when payments can resume.

Anyone who needs immediate food assistance should call 211 or visit www.feedingpa.org or pa-navigate.org, officials said.

About 1 in 8 Americans get help buying food through SNAP, which provides an average user with about $188 per person each month, according to CNN.

Funding from the federal program trickles down to states, which administer the program. Other states are also bracing for the benefits to be curbed. Officials in Texas began warning residents SNAP help will be cut off in November if the federal shutdown drags on another week, while nearly 2 million people in Illinois are expecting to be cut off from the program in the coming weeks.

The federal government shutdown started at the beginning of the month, as the U.S. Senate failed to reach a deal to continue funding the government. Federal workers in the region have faced furloughs.