USDA says SNAP benefits won't be issued on Nov. 1

A notice on top of its website says "the well has run dry."

ByKevin Shalvey, Megan Forrester, Ivan Pereira, and Alexandra Hutzler
Last Updated: October 26, 2025, 5:58 PM EDT

The Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its website warning that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits won't be issued on Nov. 1.

"Bottom line, the well has run dry," reads the notice, which also blames Democrats for the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers remain at a stalemate on finding a government funding solution. The Senate has continued to fail to advance bill that would reopen the government until Nov. 21. The House remains out of session next week.

Key Headlines

Here's how the news is developing.
Oct 14, 2025, 6:53 PM EDT

Senate again fails to advance clean government funding bill

The Senate on Tuesday evening failed for the eighth time to advance legislation that would reopen the government through Nov. 21.

The bill failed by a vote of 49-45. It needed 60 votes to advance.

The U.S. Capitol during the thirteenth day of the U.S. government shutdown in Washington, October 13, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Sen. Rand Paul remained the lone Republican to vote against the bill. Independent Angus King, and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto voted in favor of it. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has voted in favor of the bill, was absent during Tuesday’s vote.

The failed vote assures that the shutdown will continue until at least Wednesday.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

Oct 14, 2025, 12:55 PM EDT

White House to continue federal layoffs as shutdown enters 3rd week

The White House Office of Management and Budget wrote on its X account on Tuesday that the Trump administration is "making every preparation" to ride out the government shutdown without caving to Democrats' demands. The agency said it would continue cutting the federal workforce in the meantime.

"Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait," the post reads.

The U.S. Capitol during the thirteenth day of the U.S. government shutdown in Washington, October 13, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Oct 14, 2025, 8:44 AM EDT

OMB 'working on ways' to get law enforcement paychecks during shutdown

An official for the Office of Management and Budget said they're "working on ways" to get federal law enforcement officers their paychecks amid the ongoing government shutdown.

This development comes after President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he'd identified "all available funds" to pay members of the military on Oct. 15. According to an OMB spokesperson, the funds Trump said he's "identified" to pay members of the military amid the shutdown come from the Defense Department's research and development allocation.

The Capitol is silhouetted by the morning sun as a government shutdown begins its tenth day, in Washington, Oct. 10, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The news about law enforcement pay was first reported by Punchbowl News.

-ABC News' Isabella Murray

Oct 13, 2025, 8:55 PM EDT

Mental health and substance abuse staffers fired amid shutdown: Sources

Dozens of employees at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) were laid off in the wave of government shutdown firings last week, multiple sources told ABC News.

Best known for overseeing the rollout of the 988 suicide prevention hotline, the agency works with state and local governments on mental health and addiction initiatives and gives out billions in grants.

The firings, which began Friday, include widespread layoffs of staff that oversee child, adolescent and family mental health services, sources told ABC News.

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

Roughly one in 10 of SAMHSA's 900 staff were fired in the spring DOGE cuts.

Other staff were recently transferred to other programs in HHS.

While the impacts of these latest firings are still being determined, a source told ABC News the agency was "hard hit."

-ABC News' Jay O'Brien

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