Governors and their teams stepped up to provide crucial support and safeguard the well-being of their communities during the 43 days of the 2025 federal shutdown. The shutdown demonstrated Governors’ ability to maintain operations of critical programs even with interruptions in federal funding and oversight. Across the country, state and territory leaders deployed emergency funds, mobilized resources, and innovated rapidly with the creativity and resolve necessary to address residents’ food security concerns.
Governors employed unique, timely, and strategic solutions: With federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) held up as part of the shutdown, Governors had to deliver critical nutrition supports to populations in need: they examined ways for the state or territory to backfill missing benefits, with no clear precedent or signal as to whether they would be reimbursed, and they deployed additional support and resources to food banks, many of which had already experienced a federal cut earlier this year. Several states and territories utilized flexibilities in existing funding streams, such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, to strengthen rapid-response efforts. While each state and territory solution was unique, a few trends emerged:
- Nearly all Governors made statements updating consumers on the status of paused benefits, compelling the federal government to act, and providing references to community resources
- 10 Governors deployed contingency strategies to draw down emergency funds to provide constituents with partial or full benefits on existing electronic benefit transaction (EBT) cards or through new pathways
- 14 Governors declared a State of Emergency over food insecurity concerns, which allowed them to unlock unconventional funding streams and enabled streamlined coordination between agencies
- 34 Governors allocated additional state or territory dollars or expedited dispersal of funding already committed to support food banks
- 5 Governors leveraged flexible TANF funds, providing support to food banks or providing emergency assistance to TANF-eligible families to offset the gap in federal SNAP benefits
- At least 6 Governors deployed the National Guard or a state or territory Corps of Engineers to support food bank operations and food delivery
Select State Examples
In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin swiftly declared a State of Emergency to unlock state emergency dollars to support the Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance (VENA) effort, which provided consumers the equivalent of 25% of their monthly SNAP benefit per week directly onto their existing EBT cards. The effort required extensive coordination between the state Department of Social Services and Conduent, Virginia’s EBT vendor. The VENA effort succeeded in getting benefits to consumers’ cards starting in the first week of November, ensuring continuity for families and individuals.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry announced a state-funded emergency assistance effort that provided support to SNAP households that included the elderly, disabled, or children, effectively triaging resources to support the most vulnerable. Each household received the equivalent of 25% of their monthly benefit every week on existing EBT cards, strategically mitigating the risk of “duplicative benefits,” that could have occurred if the federal government promptly re-opened.
In Hawai’i, Governor Josh Green launched a multi-pronged response. The state created the HI Relief Program, using $100 million of the state’s TANF funds to provide emergency cash assistance to TANF-enrolled families to help offset the gap in SNAP benefits by supporting other basic needs, including emergency housing support. Hawai’i also directed $2 million in state support through the Department of Human Services to food banks and released $500,000 to support the Farm to Families program to increase the purchase of locally grown food. Governor Green also launched the state Kōkua Food Drive the first week of November in partnership with local libraries to collect canned/non-perishable food for local pantries.
In Missouri, Governor Mike Kehoe leveraged federal flexibilities to allocate $5 million in TANF funding to support food banks, a streamlined effort to advance a regular appropriation scheduled to take place later in the year. Missouri also took efforts to protect especially vulnerable populations and transferred $10.6 million from the state’s Senior Services Growth and Development Fund to the Missouri Area Agencies on Aging to provide supplementary meals for senior citizens.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul created a comprehensive web of support for food banks. The state deployed more than $100 million in state funds to support food banks’ purchasing of additional inventory and leveraged both the Empire State Service Corps and the SUNY Civic Engagement Corps to support food distribution. New York also launched a temporary push to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students not already enrolled in federal programs and indicated that state staff were identifying innovative ways to send “leftovers” home to support food security out of school hours.
In New Hampshire, Governor Kelly Ayotte led a partnership with the New Hampshire Food Bank to boost both the mobile food pantry program and support traditional food pantries across the state. The mobile food pantry program expansion was targeted at areas with high proportions of SNAP recipients to efficiently meet the population’s needs.
In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster partnered with Central Carolina Community Foundation to create the One SC Fund, a single hub to enable a coordinated charitable giving campaign for community donations. This allowed the state to support streamlined distribution of donated funds to food banks in the highest need communities.
Shutdown Challenges
Governors’ swift actions addressed immediate needs—but it wasn’t easy, especially during this period of uncertainty marked by federal office closures and staff furloughs. Governors and their teams faced numerous extrinsic challenges resulting from lagging guidance and complications from litigation. From mid-October through mid-November of 2025, state and territory agencies received delayed guidance and rapidly changing information that varied between directing states and territories to pause benefits altogether, issue partial benefits at two different calculated levels, and then issue full benefits. State and territory leaders had to forge ahead on implementation without clarifications on potentialities regarding federal operations and decisions: states and territories needed to open lanes of communication on topics like accessibility/utility of EBT cards at point sale, removal of retailer authorizations , access to state and territory beneficiary data to target populations with additional resources, and the use of SNAP Contingency Funds.
Given the implementation timeline for HR 1 requirements, every state or territory dollar that was used to mitigate the disruption in federal operations was increasingly valuable. States and territories have already begun in earnest to address the shared priorities of strengthening payment accuracy, reducing improper payments and fraud, and ensuring eligible households receive the correct benefits at the right time. These goals carry particularly high stakes this year, as the error rates being calculated now will directly influence future state and territory cost-sharing obligations—and, for some states or territories, their ability to sustain program operations.
The Forecast on SNAP: What to watch ahead
Recovering from the Shutdown – Fiscal Implications: HR 1 introduced new and significant budgetary liabilities for states and territories, and finding the funding to accommodate their new administrative burden is no easy task. In 2026, states and territories will be required to take up a larger proportion of the program administrative costs; beginning in 2027, many states and territories will have to pay for a portion of benefits. The amount of funding states and territories will need to produce to meet the new cost-share penalty, which in some instances is estimated to be as large as states and territories’ allotment of K-12 education funding, is considerable. Governors will face difficult decisions in balancing these funding obligations, which may include exploration of cutbacks in other programmatic areas like early childhood education or K-12 systems. Unlike the federal government, 49 states and territories are required to balance their budget each year, which limits their ability to create new revenue streams. If states and territories are unable to meet these new obligations (ranging from a projected $3 million (USVI) to $2.7 billion (CA)), they may be forced to consider the viability of operating a SNAP program entirely.
A Cautious Approach to Enrollment and Eligibility: States and territories continue to advance toward new eligibility standards during a time of heighted stakes for errors. States and territories are likely to adopt a cautious posture to mitigate administrative errors and improve payment accuracy. State and territories may take actions like increasing the stakes for staff who conduct eligibility screenings or expedite their redetermination timeline to confirm eligibility more frequently, all of which can contribute to improved oversight and accountability but also contribute to an additional burden for consumers, staff, and state systems. As Governors work to maintain workforce morale and prevent burnout for those working in human services, they will have to balance these priorities with a strategy for implementing new SNAP requirements so the changes can be made successfully.
Governors’ swift actions during the shutdown addressed immediate needs—but at significant cost to their own budgets and staff capacity. As states and territories continue to transition back into normal operations, they face a continued uphill challenge in implementing new eligibility and work requirements from HR. 1, which represents a fundamental shift in the federal-state/territory partnership in administering safety net programs. Implementing such momentous changes would be a challenge even under the best circumstances; however, launching implementation during a shutdown marked by fragmented and conflicting guidance makes the hill that much steeper – with severe consequences for any delays or hiccups in implementing the new law. States and territories have less than a year before HR 1 reductions to administrative funding take effect, and less than two years before cost-share penalties begin. Governors steered the ship through the shutdown of fall 2025 and will keep a steady hand on the wheel as they steward both their constituencies and SNAP operations through the challenges ahead.
