This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.
In Santa Barbara County, recipients of the federal government’s largest food assistance program, SNAP (formerly food stamps), should receive their benefits as normal, says the county’s Department of Social Services. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to approve a federal budget, effectively ending the government shutdown. The agreed-upon budget will fund the government until January 30 and ensure SNAP funding through September 2026. However, just yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins gave an interview where she suggested that people would have to reapply for benefits.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which facilitates the SNAP program (called CalFresh in California), announced in October that it would not issue November SNAP benefits due to the shutdown. An announcement on the organization’s website said that “the well [had] run dry” and blamed Democrats for the shutdown.
During the first week of November, SNAP benefits did not go out to millions of Americans. In Santa Barbara County, 55,000 people receive SNAP benefits, which help them pay for groceries. The biggest recipient group is children, followed by the young adults (ages 19-24) and senior citizens. Food banks and nonprofits worked hard to stock up, raise money, and increase distribution.
While people across the country lined up at food banks, a legal battle over SNAP waged in the courts, with two federal judges ordering the USDA to release at least some of the money. Later, one of the judges — Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. — said the Trump administration knew there would be a long delay in paying out partial benefits and ordered the full release of the benefits. On November 6, the USDA sent a memo advising states to release that money to people. Santa Barbara County distributed SNAP benefits to people that weekend.
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the administration a temporary reprieve from the order. Justice Brown Jackson later extended that reprieve before the shutdown vote. After that initial reprieve, the USDA sent a second memo telling states to take back the benefits. A coalition of 23 state attorneys general and three governors, co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued the USDA over this memo. In response, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted a temporary restraining order on it, such that states could not be ordered to take back the benefits.
“If necessary, we are ready to defend this ruling through any further legal proceedings,” Bonta said in a November 13 press release.
In a November 13 memo, the USDA ordered states to “take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments prompt.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday night that “SNAP is full of corruption,” and that there were hundreds of thousands of dead people enrolled in the program. Rollins said that the Trump administration planned to require millions of SNAP recipients to reapply to address fraud. An April report from the Congressional Research Service says that SNAP fraud is actually relatively rare, given available data. Details on whether the USDA will officially require people to reapply are unavailable at this time.
In the press release, Bonta said he welcomed Congress’s decision to fully fund SNAP. But, he said the end to the shutdown did not prevent people’s healthcare premiums from skyrocketing.
“Going forward, I hope Congress rises to the challenge and supports families who will face these soaring costs,” he said.
