With the 2025 government shutdown now underway, struggling families in the Houston area are left to wonder how nutrition programs will be impacted by a potential lapse in funding.
The USDA released a contingency plan in 2024 for how funding would be impacted by a government shutdown, addressing both a short-term or a long-term situation.
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If a funding lapse seems likely within five days of expiration, leadership begins shutdown preparations. The Assistant Administrator, CFO, and Budget Director oversee appropriations monitoring and advise the Administrator.
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SNAP, WIC, and Child Nutrition programs continue if funds exist but can stop if money runs out.
Exempt programs funded outside annual appropriations are unaffected. Non-essential federal activities shut down with most staff furloughed.
Minimal staff are retained for operations and financial management, with more needed if the lapse is prolonged. States and partners can continue using existing funds, but federal support may be limited.
So, how much money do the programs have to work with?
Key Budget Figures and Context
- The FNS 2025 budget request is $163.6 billion (mandatory + discretionary) to support 16 nutrition assistance programs.
- For WIC, the budget includes $7.7 billion to serve an estimated 7 million women, infants, and children in 2025.
- The budget also proposes a new emergency contingency fund for unexpected increases in WIC participation or food cost increases.
Impacted programs
During a lapse, excepted programs such as SNAP, Child Nutrition programs, and WIC continue operating as long as funds are available. Other excepted activities include Food Distribution on Indian Reservations, nutrition block grants, disaster response, and commodity procurement funded by multi-year or direct appropriations. However, if funds run out, even excepted programs must stop.
Staffing during a lapse is carefully managed. Excepted personnel are limited to those supporting core functions of SNAP, Child Nutrition, WIC, program policy, operations, financial management, and development of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Staffing levels depend on the timing, duration, and emergency needs, with staff recalled temporarily if new issues arise.
Unimpacted programs
Exempt programs, which are funded by direct statute or independent funding streams, are not affected by appropriations lapses. These include Child Nutrition activities funded by statute, the Senior Farmers Market program, and Pandemic EBT closeout activities.
Other federal activities
All other federal activities undergo an orderly shutdown, with non-excepted staff furloughed. State and partner agencies may continue operations using previously provided federal funds or their own resources, but federal support pauses for non-excepted and exempt programs.
Exempt personnel funded by direct appropriations or independent streams continue working. All employees report on the first day of a lapse to complete shutdown tasks, after which non-excepted and non-exempt staff move to furlough. A small subset remains only as long as needed for critical shutdown duties.
For short lapses of three days or less, only core leadership and minimal program and financial staff will remain in the workplace. Longer lapses or fiscal year transitions require more staff, including regional administrators, program directors, budget and accounting staff, IT and security personnel, and grants management specialists.