Volunteers from No Limits Outreach Ministries in Hyattsville, Maryland, and the Capital Area Food Bank prepare for distribution on October 28, 2025 to furloughed federal employees affected by the government shutdown. People with official work IDs began lining up hours in advance. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — By Saturday, millions of Americans are expected to face a piercing augment in health premium costs during open enrollment, although a hunger crisis may have been temporarily averted, both tied to the ongoing government shutdown.
A federal judge in Massachusetts found Friday afternoon that the U.S. Department of Agriculture acted unlawfully in deciding to withhold billions in emergency funds for 42 million people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) while there is a government shutdown.
But while the ruling does not require the USDA to immediately draw on its roughly $6 billion emergency fund, a separate ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the agency to continue payments after a coalition of religious and advocacy groups filed suit.
Before both rulings, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the USDA’s decision not to apply the emergency fund during a news conference Friday at the U.S. Capitol with House Speaker Mike Johnson on the 31st day of the government shutdown.
“We’re here today because SNAP benefits run out tomorrow, so the truth has finally come out, right?” Rollins said. “Democrats’ support for programs like SNAP is now reduced to cynical control over people’s lives.”
How the two court rulings would be implemented by the administration was still unclear on Friday afternoon.
The move to cut off SNAP would make millions hungry almost 40% of them are childrenand is an attempt by the Trump administration to pressure Senate Democrats to accept Republicans’ stopgap bill passed by the House of Representatives to fund the government through November 21st.
Senate Democrats have called for action on tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, driving up costs dramatically.
You have tried to initiate negotiationsBut Republicans have maintained that talks on health subsidies won’t begin until the government receives funding.
Flight delays, filibuster fate
As the government shutdown continues, millions of federal employees are furloughed or continue to work without pay, including air traffic controllers.
Flight delays and cancellations are beginning to augment, with 3,739 delays within, to or from the United States and 364 cancellations within the United States as of midday Friday, according to the FlightAware delay tracker.
A further complication to the shutdown arose when President Donald Trump, who had spent most of the week abroad in Asia meeting with foreign leaders on trade and tariff talks, on Thursday evening called on Republicans to eliminate the Senate filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold.
“Get rid of the filibuster, NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media platform. Senate Republicans are cautious about the idea because Democrats could do the same if they regain control of the chamber, now held by the 53-seat GOP.
Lacking 60 votes, the Senate failed 13 times to pass the emergency solution passed by the House of Representatives and left the Capitol on Thursday evening. Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada tried to keep the Senate in session but was overruled by Republicans.
Another critical deadline approaching Friday was pay for busy military personnel. Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would reallocate funds to ensure payment, but gave no details about those plans. According to AxiosThe Defense Department withdrew billions from multiple accounts to ensure troops could be paid.
Rollins defends USDA’s refusal to pay benefits
Congress failed to fund SNAP and nearly every other federal discretionary program for fiscal year 2026, which began Oct. 1.
To receive SNAP benefits, a household’s gross monthly income must be at or below 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. A family of four would receive a maximum monthly allowance of $994, according to SNAP USDA.
Rollins sought to justify her agency’s refusal to reallocate emergency funds to finance SNAP by saying that money “can only flow if the underlying program is funded” and “by law, an emergency fund can only flow if the underlying fund is flowing.”
The Agriculture Minister said: “Even if it could flow, it doesn’t even cover half of November.”
The USDA said in a memo In early October, the company said it would not draw on the contingency fund to keep the program running in November, even though its now-deleted Sept. 30 shutdown plan said it would draw on that reserve.
The Memo said The Emergency Fund “is a source of funding for emergencies such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides grocery shopping benefits to individuals in disaster areas, including natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods that can occur quickly and without notice.”
Democrats objected. The decision by a federal judge in Boston on Friday is based on a suit Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to force the USDA to apply the emergency fund.
USDA Secretary recounts conversation with Kellner
At the Capitol press conference, Rollins also recalled a recent encounter at a restaurant in Louisiana with a “wonderful” waiter named Joe, who she said took that job after being furloughed as a federal government employee due to the shutdown.
“He didn’t know who I was. And I said, ‘Well, Joe, I appreciate that. You know, I’m kind of in that world too.’ And I said, “Where do you work?” And he said, ‘Well, I work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in their New Orleans office as part of the finance team.'”
Rollins said that encounter “just really brought me home … to reiterate what Mike (Johnson) said, thanking so many thousands of federal workers who are showing up, who are still doing their jobs, who are not getting paid, those who are now struggling to put food on the table, take out their mortgage and pay their rent.”
Rollins, along with the rest of the President’s Cabinet, is still paid.
Health care premiums are skyrocketing
With open enrollment beginning Saturday, Affordable Care Act marketplace participants who currently receive a tax credit will likely see their monthly premium payments more than double, averaging about 114%. according to an analysis by KFF.
Democrats warned about this last month, as tax credits that fund individual health insurance expire at the end of the year.
The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, said in a statement that many families will see an augment in their premiums on Nov. 1.
“The sticker shock that many families will face when purchasing health insurance is unacceptable, and that is why Congress must act,” Pallone said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that if Congress does not extend the tax credits, insurers will expect hearty, younger people to abandon their market insurance plans, leading to higher premium costs.
Concerns about the WIC program
Meanwhile, USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), a separate program from SNAP, received a $300 million infusion of tariff revenue from the agency to keep the program running through October.
The program offers almost 7 million Providing women, infants, and children with hearty eating, breastfeeding support, nutrition education, and other resources.
Advocates are calling on the government to provide additional emergency funding for WIC.
Led by the National WIC Associationmore than three dozen national organizations have joined one Letter dated October 24th to the White House and called on the administration to provide an additional $300 million in emergency funding.
Lead affected
The consequences of the shutdown are also noticeable projection – A Federal program which provides early childhood education, nutritious meals, health screenings and other support services to low-income families and served more than 790,000 children in the 2023-2024 program year.
The National Head Start Association estimates that 140 programs in 41 states and Puerto Rico, serving more than 65,000 children, will not receive their operating funding if the shutdown continues beyond Nov. 1 — a reality that appears certain.
Six of those programs, serving more than 6,500 children, did not receive this funding as of Oct. 1 and had to rely on outside resources and local funds to keep their programs afloat.
SNAP, WIC and Native communities
American Indian and Alaska Native communities They also seek to address anticipated gaps in food security and assistance due to funding uncertainties for SNAP and WIC.
Advocates and U.S. senators on the other side say these funding uncertainties for key federal nutrition programs are putting particular pressure on indigenous communities.
At an Oct. 29 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the shutdown’s impact on tribal communities, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said she is hearing from tribal nations in her state about people switching from SNAP to the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), a separate USDA initiative.
FDPIR is an alternative to SNAP and per USDAprovides food to income-eligible households living on Indian reservations and Indian households living in approved areas near reservations and in Oklahoma.
