The longest government shutdown in American history was 35 days long.

As of Wednesday morning, the current government shutdown will have tied that record.

What is a government shutdown?

Simply put, a government shutdown occurs when the federal government is broke. Every year, typically on Oct. 1 (the start of the fiscal year), the federal government must enact an annual appropriations bill to fund all government operations. But for a bill to go into effect, it must be passed by both chambers of Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives – and be signed into law by the president.

If such a bill is not passed, signed into law, and enacted by Oct. 1, the federal government – and all the departments that fall under it or are funded by it – must halt all nonessential programs and services.

There is one way to sustain government operations in the short-term without passing a full appropriations bill: a continuing resolution (CR). According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, CRs “are temporary spending bills that allow federal government operations to continue when final appropriations have not been approved by Congress and the President.” But in our current situation, neither a CR nor an appropriations bill have been passed.

So where does that leave the American people?

In Texas, according to the White House’s Government Shutdown Clock, the shutdown has caused a $1.4 billion decrease in gross state product (presumably the state equivalent of GDP), a ~1400 worker increase in unemployment, and ~218,000 federal employees to have to work without pay or be furloughed.

But the biggest impact of the government shutdown has undoubtedly been on food stamps, specifically SNAP.

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget” in order to improve the affordability of nutritious food.

With the government shutdown in effect, funding for SNAP has taken a large hit. In addition, with the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” earlier this year, SNAP is set to lose $187 billion in funding through 2034. But the loss of funding isn’t the only hurdle SNAP and other food assistance programs face; there’s also the cancellation of the USDA’s Household Food Security Report in September to contend with, which will likely result in the loss of a wealth of data regarding hunger nationwide causing “millions of older adults [relying on SNAP benefits to]…vanish from view as the social safety net continues to collapse around them.”

According to The Guardian, as of Oct. 26, nearly 42 million people were set to lose access to SNAP benefits on Nov. 1, the day funding for SNAP was set to be cut off.

Benefits did indeed cease on Nov. 1 as the USDA froze funding, as a result of the shutdown. And while federal judges have “ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funding to provide SNAP benefits for the 42 million people who rely on” it, the Trump administration has only promised to pay out half the benefits participants would normally receive out of a Department of Agriculture contingency fund, citing the need to support newly approved SNAP applicants, to potentially use for disaster assistance, and to maintain a funding cushion.

Yet another factor to consider is U.S. President Donald Trump’s Tuesday post on Truth Social which stated that “SNAP BENEFITS…will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”

Trump’s statement comes as five more Democrat votes are needed to reopen the government, after the 14th funding patch passed by the House was rejected by the Senate on Tuesday. But Democrats have their own ultimatum: healthcare, or more specifically, extending insurance subsidies for the Affordable Care Act prior to their end-of-year expiry.

While there is little the American people can do about the government shutdown beyond continuing to reach out to their representatives and senators, there is a lot we can do to mitigate the effects of the government shutdown.

As the SNAP crisis worsens, food banks across the nation have seen a surge in recipients with several bank administrators fearing a potential public health crisis as the situation deteriorates. 

So while we may not be able to end the shutdown, we can show up to donate and share food. We can work together to support our community. And most of all, we can prioritize extending a helping hand to our friends, family, and fellow citizens.

Because after all, this country is still one of “We the People.”