STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. Here's what we know about the government shutdown. Some Senate Democrats and one independent voted with the Republicans last night on a deal that moves Congress toward ending the shutdown, but there's still a lot of uncertainty about what this means for SNAP food assistance. The supplemental nutrition funding normally helps families pay for food. We've heard the voices of some parents and others doing without on MORNING EDITION. The administration has declined so far to pay during the shutdown.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
NPR's Tovia Smith has been following the drama and joins us now. Good morning, Tovia.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: OK. So there's been so much back-and-forth on SNAP benefits, and it only seems to be getting more confusing, especially these past few days. Can you just catch us up?
SMITH: Yes. It truly has been like whiplash following this. And this latest round was especially fast and furious. Just this morning, the Trump administration told the Supreme Court it is still asking the justices to stop a lower-court ruling requiring full SNAP benefits be paid for November. That even though administration officials noted that if there's an end to the government shutdown, full benefits would resume and the issue would be moot. And this all comes after a federal appeals court last night refused a similar request to block an order to increase SNAP benefits from 65% to 100%. And meantime, another battle is boiling over around states who already paid out full benefits. The Trump administration says those payments were unauthorized and is threatening that those states might have to pay the federal government back for any payments over 65%. The states say that could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars and could be catastrophic. And, of course, any more delay would also mean continued hardship for all those people struggling to feed their families.
FADEL: But with the news of this deal, Tovia, that could reopen the government and restart SNAP benefits, do these legal battles then become moot?
SMITH: So there's no precedent for anything like this, so no certainty. But the expectation has been that when the government reopens and Congress can appropriate SNAP funding for this fiscal year, full benefits would be restored. So, yes, much of this may become moot.
FADEL: OK. And - but the big question - right? - for people who need these benefits, is when that would happen after a government reopening. When do - could they expect that?
SMITH: Again, no certainty here, but we can see that in this last round, states who were motivated to get benefits flowing did so very quickly in a matter of days. So it seems doable, especially if states are going back to full benefits, which, by all accounts, are easier to do than trying to calculate partial benefits.
FADEL: OK. So that sounds like it'd be welcome news to the millions of Americans who've been riding the roller coaster on this, really anxious about how much of their benefits would be coming and when.
SMITH: Yeah. I'm already hearing some sense of relief and cautious optimism. As one SNAP recipient said to me, I'll believe it when I see it. But I'll add that even a quick resumption of SNAP benefits, there may still be longer-term ramifications from this lapse. First, in a concrete, practical way. For example, a food bank CEO told me she thinks she's going to be short on stock for months, not only because people who ran their cupboards bare may be buying more than usual to get back to normal, but also because food orders that food banks get from the government couldn't happen during the shutdown, and it may be too late now, for example, to get deliveries, say, for January. And also there may be intangible implications, like I'm hearing a lingering sense of uncertainty or insecurity, as one SNAP recipient told me, now that it's happened once, they'll worry it can happen again.
FADEL: NPR's Tovia Smith. Thank you for your reporting, Tovia.
SMITH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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