The Trump administration is warning that millions of Americans could lose out on federal food benefits within days if Democrats do not accept Republicans' plan to end the government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it does not have the ability to independently reshuffle funds into the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, according to a recent memo obtained by Fox News Digital.
"Due to Congressional Democrats’ refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR), approximately 42 million individuals will not receive their SNAP benefits come November 1st," the memo said.
"This jeopardizes all SNAP recipients in November, including those that have applied for benefits in the last half of October, and furloughed Federal employees who will not receive their combined October/November benefits."
Democrats had been pressing the Trump administration to use the federal government's SNAP contingency fund, which they said contains about $5 billion, to cover at least some of the shortfall.
It takes about $8 to $9 billion per month to cover all SNAP benefits.
