BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) announced that the ongoing federal government shutdown, which began on October 1, 2025, is directly impacting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for Louisiana residents.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are currently insufficient federal funds to cover SNAP benefits beginning November 1, 2025, if the shutdown continues. As a result, LDH said it is unable to process or issue SNAP benefits for November until funding is restored.
Despite the disruption, LDH is urging all SNAP recipients to continue meeting program requirements on schedule. This includes:
Reporting household changes promptly,
Completing all simplified reporting or recertification paperwork, and
Submitting any requested verification documents either by mail to the LDH Economic Stability Document Processing Center, by fax at (225) 663-3164, or in person at any LDH parish office.
Officials confirmed that any unused SNAP benefits remaining on EBT cards as of October 31 will remain accessible and can be used as normal.
LDH emphasized that this issue affects SNAP households nationwide and said it will prioritize processing and issuing benefits as soon as the federal funding situation is resolved.
