Schumer, Gillibrand call on Trump Administration to release SNAP funds

Press Release, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) held a virtual press conference to demand the Trump administration stop cruelly withholding available funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

While Republicans continue to deny this vital assistance, despite having the ability to keep food assistance flowing, the senators announced they are pushing new legislation — the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 — to continue these vital food programs for working families during the GOP shutdown.

“For the first time in history, a president, Donald Trump, is refusing to fund SNAP during a shutdown despite the fact that he has the available funds to keep it going,” said Sen. Schumer.

SNAP is the largest anti-hunger program in the United States, providing an average of $187 per month in food aid to over 42 million people nationwide—including nearly 3 million New Yorkers.

Despite having billions of dollars ready and available to pay for SNAP in a contingency fund, the Trump administration is refusing to tap into this fund. Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand called on the administration to immediately make this money available to help keep SNAP benefits flowing until the government reopens.

“Trump is weaponizing hunger,” Schumer said. “He is using kids who rely on school meals, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans & families trying to get groceries as political pawns. If this administration can cough up $40 billion for Argentina, they can fund SNAP from existing funds to stop American families from going hungry.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had a plan to release SNAP contingency funds, but Trump forced the USDA to abandon their shutdown contingency plan, making this Saturday the first time in American history SNAP benefits will lapse for hungry children, veterans, seniors and other Americans.

“In refusing to fund SNAP during the government shutdown, the Trump administration is playing politics with my constituents’ lives,” Gillibrand said. “But for families that are already stretched thin, this decision is more than political—it’s a matter of survival.”

Schumer and Gillibrand are demanding Republican leadership allow the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 to come for a full vote, which would ensure that SNAP and WIC benefits continue uninterrupted during this Republican shutdown.

The legislation additionally requires the federal government to reimburse states for covering SNAP and WIC benefits for the duration of the shutdown. The senators also joined 44 other Democrats in a letter to the Trump administration demanding that they immediately release the billions of dollars at their disposal to fund SNAP.

Since the beginning of his term, Trump has targeted food assistance for hungry Americans. Earlier this year, Trump already gutted nearly $200 billion from SNAP in the Republican “Big, Beautiful Bill,” and canceled $1 billion in food assistance for schools and food banks.