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Though the amount Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients could be receiving for November is still up in the air, their wait for the money might be nearing an end. Arkansans who rely on federal food assistance could see their benefits restored as early as next week, Janet Mann, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, told a legislative committee Thursday. "We are hoping for benefits to go out the door next week," Mann said. "But that is a day-by-day thing considering they made a change on us this morning." Thursday morning, the Trump administration announced that SNAP food aid for November will be reduced by less than the 50% originally announced. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a court filing late Wednesday that it caught an error in its earlier plan to reduce the maximum benefit by half and that beneficiaries would instead get up to 65% of their usual assistance. Under the formula, benefits are reduced by 35% for households receiving the maximum amount, and households of the same size would have benefits reduced by the same dollar amount. For a family of three, the benefit would be reduced by $275. For a person living alone, it would drop by $105, according to an analysis by Ben Molin, who runs SNAP Screener, a website about benefits. That means that the lowest-income families would be affected the least. An analysis by the progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that in the 12 months that ended September 2024, just over one-third of beneficiaries received the maximum amount. There's another wrinkle: The minimum benefit for households with one or two people would be $16. Some bigger households are in line to receive nothing for November. Relief also came for DHS employees on Thursday when it was announced that USDA will provide administrative funding for the SNAP program, meaning the state won't furlough 1,500 employees in its Division of County Operations on Friday. The furlough date is now scheduled for Nov. 22, should the shutdown continue to that point. Those employees can continue working on SNAP applications and renewals until that date. Additionally, a federal judge in Rhode Island Thursday afternoon ordered the Trump administration to find the money to fully fund SNAP benefits for November. The ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. gave the administration until Friday to make the payments. Mann told state legislators that because of the court order, the state could again begin making SNAP payments next week but emphasized that federal guidance could change, citing a sudden reversal of planned furloughs that were supposed to take effect Friday. Mann told members of the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that if the government shutdown continues, she is unsure whether the state can continue to distribute SNAP benefits going forward. "We have no guidance for anything after the end of November from USDA, so we don't know what will happen in December," Mann said. Mann added, "The guidance from USDA is non-negotiable, we must follow this, these are their rules to get the benefits out." For people dealing with the interruption of food aid, the busy news day didn't change their approach. "Since there's no issue date that's been finalized for us, we're continuing to keep our plan how it is, and still act like SNAP benefits have not gone out, because they haven't yet," said Kate Jenkins, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Foodbank. "One bright spot that we're also looking forward to, other than partial benefits, is that the DHS offices won't be closed, because DHS obviously is a great partner for SNAP and we are still adding people taking applications for SNAP." Asked for a chance to talk with a County Operations employee about not being furloughed Friday, department spokesperson Gavin Lesnick declined, saying that all interview requests go through him and that such employees handle "sensitive" case information, though case information wasn't part of the request. Arkansas Food Relief Alliance CEO Sylvia Blain was "grateful" that the allotments had been raised to 65 and "excited" about the deferred furloughs of DHS employees. "We were genuinely very concerned about our DHS employees being furloughed," Blain said. "Just the burden of answering questions to the Foodbank and to the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, because we manage SNAP call centers. So when the state or the government is unavailable to answer those questions, it would be shifted to us, and we would be doing so without getting regular updates from the government." For Kayleigh Muniz, a 23-year-old mother of one who has received SNAP benefits for four years, the stoppage of the $500 she usually received has been confusing. She said she was used to short government shutdowns but was caught off guard when her benefits were not loaded onto her card. Her mother had to explain the shutdown to her, she said. "It's hard because food stamps or WIC in a way, it helped us," Muniz said. "Because it helped us save up for money to pay another bill or rent money and things like that. We didn't have to spend that money on groceries or food because it could have been put to a future bill or something." Sandra Armstrong, the minister's wife at River Ministry, said requests for food boxes from the pantry have "tripled" in recent days. She added that the shutdown pushed Armstrong and her husband to have their daughter move in with them. "She receives food stamps, she has a disability, so we just decided to go get her and bring her home with us," Armstrong explained. "Instead of us trying to buy food for two households, we just brought her to stay with us until all this passes." According to a media release from DHS regarding the ongoing impacts to the agency from the shutdown, funds administered to community partners through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Social Services Block Grant and Community Service Block Grant programs have been suspended. Those agencies were directed to cease services reliant on federal funding provided through DHS and to hold all invoices. This includes funds that support programs within the Arkansas Department of Education, Area Agencies on Aging, Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, the Arkansas Spinal Cord Commission, Community Action Agencies, the Division of Services for the Blind and multiple TANF subgrantees. In addition to 37 employees within the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance who have been furloughed since the beginning of the shutdown, 34 additional employees within the Office of Payment Integrity; Division of Aging, Adult and Behavioral Health Services; and Division of County Operations have also been placed on furlough due to a lapse in funding.
