Volunteers from No Limits Outreach Ministries in Hyattsville, Maryland, and the Capital Area Food Bank are preparing to distribute on October 28, 2025, to furloughed federal employees affected by the government shutdown. People with state employment IDs started lining up a few hours ahead of time. (Photo: Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Millions of Americans are expected to face a drastic augment in the cost of health care premiums during the open enrollment period by Saturday, although the hunger crisis may have been temporarily averted, both related to the ongoing government shutdown.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday afternoon found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture acted illegally by deciding to withhold billions in emergency funding for 42 million people receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) due to the government shutdown.
While the ruling does not order the USDA to immediately exploit its roughly $6 billion contingency fund, a separate ruling by a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the agency to continue making payments after being sued by a coalition of religious groups and supporters.
Before both rulings, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the USDA’s decision not to exploit the emergency fund during a Friday news conference on Capitol Hill with House Speaker Mike Johnson on the 31st day of the government shutdown.
“We’re here today because SNAP benefits end tomorrow, so the truth has finally come out, right?” Rollins said. “Democrats’ support for programs like SNAP now amounts to cynical control over people’s lives.”
As of noon Friday, it was not yet clear how the administration would implement both court rulings.
The decision to cut SNAP would leave millions hungry, almost 40% of them are childrenand is an attempt by the Trump administration to put pressure on Senate Democrats to accept the House-passed GOP short-lived spending bill that would fund the government through November 21.
Senate Democrats have demanded action on tax breaks that will expire at the end of the year for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act platform, driving up costs dramatically.
Have tried to trigger negotiationsbut Republicans maintain that talks on health care subsidies will not begin until the government receives funding.
Flight delays, obstruction of fate
As the government shutdown continues, millions of federal workers, including air traffic controllers, are on furlough or continue to work without pay.
Flight delays and cancellations are starting to augment, with 3,739 delays reported within, to and from the United States as of noon Friday, and 364 cancellations within the United States as of noon Friday. FlightAware delay monitor.
Another complication arose when President Donald Trump, who spent much 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 and get rid of him, NOW!” Trump wrote on his social media site. Senate Republicans were lukewarm on the idea because Democrats could then do the same if they regained control of the chamber, which currently holds the GOP with 53 seats.
Lacking 60 votes, the Senate failed to take up the House-passed stopgap spending measure 13 times and left the Capitol on Thursday evening. Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada tried to keep the Senate in session but was rebuffed by Republicans.
Another critical deadline looming on Friday was pay for active-duty soldiers. Vice President J.D. Vance said the Trump administration would reshuffle funds to ensure payrolls, but did not provide details of those plans. According to AxiosThe Department of Defense withdrew billions from several accounts to ensure soldiers could pay.
Rollins defends USDA’s refusal to pay benefits
Congress failed to fund SNAP and almost every other discretionary federal program for fiscal year 2026, which began on October 1.
To receive SNAP benefits, your household’s gross monthly income must be at least 130% of the federal poverty guidelines. According to the data, a family of four would receive a maximum monthly SNAP allotment of $994 USDA.
Rollins tried to justify her agency’s refusal to reshuffle emergency funds to pay for SNAP by claiming that money “can only flow when the underlying program is funded” and “by law, the emergency fund can only flow when the underlying fund flows.”
The Secretary of Agriculture said that “even if it could flow, it doesn’t even cover mid-November.”
The USDA said in a memo in early October that it would not exploit the contingency fund to keep the program going in November, despite a since-deleted September 30 plant shutdown plan saying it would exploit that reserve.
The the note stated the emergency fund “is a source of funds for unforeseen expenses, such as the Disaster SNAP program, which provides food benefits to people in areas affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods that may strike quickly and without notice.”
Democrats objected. Friday’s decision by a federal judge in Boston stems from: lawsuit brought by 25 states and the District of Columbia against the Trump administration to force the USDA to exploit its contingency fund.
USDA secretary recalls conversation with waiter
At the Capitol press conference, Rollins also recalled a recent encounter at a Louisiana restaurant with a “wonderful” waiter named Joe, who she said took the job after being placed on leave as a federal government employee due to the business shutdown.
“He didn’t know who I was. And I said, ‘Well, Joe, I can appreciate that.’ You know, I’m kind of in this world too. ” And I said, ‘Where do you work?’ And he said, “Well, I work for the United States Department of Agriculture in their office in New Orleans as a member of the finance team.”
Rollins said the meeting “simply blew me away… and I’ll echo what Mike (Johnson) said, just thanking the thousands of federal workers who show up, who continue to do their job, who don’t get paid, and now worry about putting food on the table, taking out a mortgage, and paying rent.”
Rollins along with the rest of the president’s cabinet he still makes money.
Health premiums are rising rapidly
As open enrollment begins Saturday, Affordable Care Act enrollees who currently receive the tax credit will likely see their monthly premiums more than double, to an average of about 114%. – according to KFF’s analysis.
Democrats have been warning about this for the past month as tax breaks that support pay for individual health insurance are set to expire at the end of the year.
The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican Frank Pallone of New Jersey, said in a statement that many families will see a premium augment starting Nov. 1.
“The sticker shock that many families face when seeking health insurance is unacceptable, and that’s why Congress must act,” Pallone said.
It was estimated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that if Congress does not extend the tax breaks, insurers expect hearty, younger people to abandon marketplace insurance plans, driving up premium costs.
Concern about the WIC program
Meanwhile, the USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, a separate program from SNAP, received a $300 million injection from the agency using tariff revenue to keep the program running through October.
The program provides almost 7 million hearty food, breastfeeding support, nutrition education and other resources for women, infants and children.
Advocates are calling on the administration to provide WIC with additional emergency funding.
Hosted by National WIC Associationover thirty national organizations have signed up Letter of October 24 to the White House, calling on the administration to provide an additional $300 million in emergency funding.
This applies to Head Start
The effects of downtime are also severe Start with the head -A federal program that provides early education, nutritious meals, preventive screenings and other support services to low-income families and reached 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 operating funds if the shutdown continues after November 1 – which seems certain.
Six of these programs, serving more than 6,500 children, did not receive this funding on October 1 and had to seek outside resources and local funding to maintain their programs.
SNAP, WIC and indigenous communities
American Indian and Alaska Native communities they are also working to fill anticipated food security and assistance gaps resulting from SNAP and WIC funding uncertainties.
Advocates and U.S. senators say uncertainty over funding for key federal nutrition programs puts particular pressure on indigenous communities.
During an Oct. 29 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the impact of the shutdown on tribal communities, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith said she was hearing from tribal nations in her state about people switching from SNAP to the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, or FDPIR, which is a separate USDA initiative.
FDPIR is an alternative to SNAP and, per USDAprovides food to “income-eligible households living on Indian reservations and American Indian households living in approved areas near reservations and in Oklahoma.”
