What Happens to SNAP Benefits If Congress Misses the Dec. 11 Funding Deadline
Two very different Decembers are possible for the households that use SNAP to buy groceries. In one, Congress passes another funding bill before Dec. 11 and food benefits keep loading onto EBT cards as usual. In the other, the government’s funding lapses on Dec. 12, and families who rely on the program are left waiting on the same kind of standoff that delayed November benefits a year ago.
Nothing has been cut. SNAP is funded today under a stopgap law, and Congress still has several weeks to act. But the deadline is real, and the 2025 shutdown showed what can happen to benefits when it is missed.
The law that funds SNAP through Dec. 11
President Trump signed H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, on Sept. 2, 2026. The White House described it as a short-term measure that “provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations to Federal agencies through December 11, 2026.” It became Public Law 119-103.
The Congressional Research Service laid out the details in a Sept. 17 report. The measure covers the 72 days from Oct. 1 through Dec. 11. Its Section 111 funds appropriated entitlement programs, with SNAP listed as an example, “at the rate to maintain program levels under current law.” A separate section lets the Agriculture Department fund WIC, the nutrition program for women, infants and children, at a rate needed to maintain participation.
CRS also spelled out the stakes. Unless Congress enacts full-year spending bills or another stopgap before the law expires, a funding gap could begin Dec. 12, which “may result in a shutdown of affected government activities.”
This year’s setup is different from last year’s in one important way. When the 2025 shutdown ended, the package Congress sent to the president included a full-year Agriculture spending bill, which made funding available for SNAP and WIC, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. For the 2027 budget year, no such full-year Agriculture law exists yet, so SNAP rides on the same Dec. 11 deadline as most of the government.
What happened to SNAP in the 2025 shutdown
The closest guide to a lapse is the last one. During the shutdown that began Oct. 1, 2025, the Agriculture Department told states on Oct. 10 not to send November SNAP benefits, according to a States Newsroom timeline published by the Wisconsin Examiner. An Oct. 24 USDA memo said the department would not pay November benefits even though it held billions of dollars in a contingency fund.
States went to court. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell co-led a coalition of 26 states that sued, arguing the suspension was illegal, her office said on Nov. 3, 2025. Federal judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ruled against the suspension, and the Rhode Island court ordered USDA to tap the contingency money. About 42 million people were on SNAP at the time, the timeline noted.
Even then, the money fell short. The National Conference of State Legislatures reported that the contingency funds were not enough to cover the roughly $8 billion needed for November. USDA told the court it would cover only about half of benefits, and states had to recalculate monthly amounts. The legal fight went through the 1st Circuit and an emergency stay from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson before the shutdown ended in mid-November.
What a lapse after Dec. 11 could mean
The CRS report does not spell out what a lapse would mean for SNAP specifically. What happens depends on decisions by Congress and USDA, and on how much money is available for benefits after the stopgap expires. In 2025, the fight centered on the next month’s benefits after the shutdown began. If a lapse began Dec. 12 and lasted, the benefits most directly in question would be the ones scheduled after that date, including January’s.
The 2025 record shows three things households could face in a long lapse: an announcement that the next month’s benefits will not be sent, a court fight over emergency funds, and partial payments that take states time to calculate. None of that has to happen again, and a short lapse that Congress fixes quickly could pass with little effect on benefits.
A separate SNAP issue is also in play. Lawmakers are negotiating a farm bill, and a main obstacle is when states must start sharing SNAP costs under the 2025 reconciliation law, according to a Holland & Knight analysis dated Oct. 9. Senate Democrats want a two-year delay, while a one-year delay is under consideration. That fight is about state budgets and the program’s future, not December’s benefits.
Where Congress stands with weeks to go
Spending work is unfinished. The House has passed three of the 12 annual spending bills for 2027, including the Agriculture bill that funds SNAP, and the Senate had not passed comparable bills before leaving for the election recess, Holland & Knight reported. The options it listed are a large spending package, smaller bundles of bills, another stopgap into early 2027, or a partial lapse for some agencies.
Government relations firm Harbinger Strategies, in an Oct. 16 lame-duck preview, said another stopgap that carries funding into 2027 is considered very likely, while a December shutdown cannot be ruled out. Both chambers return Nov. 9 for two weeks, break for Thanksgiving, and then have two or three more weeks before the holidays, which leaves at most five legislative weeks.
The same deadline touches other programs households depend on. Earlier coverage looked at what a funding deadline can mean for Social Security, SNAP and tax refunds, and at how Medicare coverage holds up when funding runs out.
For SNAP households, the dates to watch are the votes in the weeks after Nov. 9 and any notice from USDA or a state agency about benefit timing. Until a lapse actually happens, benefits continue under current law.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Martin Falbisoner – CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikimedia Commons
