Miller Urges USDA to Fund SNAP During Federal Pause

LANSING, Mich. Oct. 30, 2025 — State Rep. Reggie Miller (D-Van Buren Twp.) is calling on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to use its contingency fund to support SNAP benefits during the federal shutdown. Her call to action comes in tandem with a legislative package introduced by Michigan House Democrats to provide hundreds of millions in emergency supplemental food assistance to SNAP recipients and funding for local food pantry programs due to the federal pause on SNAP benefits.

“Hundreds of thousands of families in Michigan rely on our dedicated local food pantries and food assistance to feed their kids. It is inhumane to halt this assistance,” Miller said. “The USDA used its contingency fund to support SNAP during the 2019 federal government shutdown. I am calling on the department for a continuation of this precedent, to make certain that no person in Michigan is forced to go without food.”

The legislative package aims to protect food access for the 1.4 million Michiganders who are at risk of losing SNAP benefits this weekend. The USDA ordered state departments administering the program to halt SNAP benefits beginning Saturday, Nov. 1, due to the Republican shutdown of the federal government. Miller, who has long been a champion for supporting Michigan’s Double Up Food Bucks program, took immediate action to defend the program’s work.

“Leaders in D.C. should be doing everything in their power to ensure SNAP benefits are not affected by this shutdown — ensuring people don’t go hungry should never be political,” Miller continued. “Lawmakers and constituents alike need to call on the federal government to do its job. I will not allow Michigan’s kids, veterans, seniors and families to pay for the federal government’s shutdown.”

 

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