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USDA officials announced on Saturday that nutrition assistance payments through a critical national welfare initiatives are not going out in November because of the continuing government funding lapse.

Closure Continues Into 25th Day

The government shutdown was in three and a half weeks as officials revealed the news, which followed calls from over 200 Congressional Democrats pushing agriculture officials to access emergency reserves to fund November's food assistance.

“Ultimately, resources are exhausted,” officials announced. “Currently, no payments will be distributed” starting next month.

Widespread Impact

Tens of millions of people count on the regular assistance, per official statistics. Some regions, such as one southwestern state, dependence on this assistance reaches one-fifth of the population.

Internal communications seen by Reuters revealed that USDA officials would not access emergency reserves to cover next month's assistance.

Partisan Impasse

Congressional leaders are still at odds about the way to finance and restart the federal government.

Comments by the leader of a budget research center suggested that federal leadership had chances to take earlier action to ensure continuous assistance.

“Officials were able and expected to taken steps earlier to make arrangements to use these funds,” the comments added. “Conversely, they might decide against it to secure political leverage” as Republicans seek to push upper chamber Democrats to support a funding package that would resume the federal government.

States Prepare

Executives in multiple regions declared states of emergency recently to allocate funds to combat potential hunger in anticipation of SNAP benefits not being issued in November.