Dear Madam Secretary:
The undersigned labor organizations write to urge you to take all possible steps to ensure that families do not go hungry, workers can remain safe, and local economies do not take an additional hit during the shutdown.
SNAP is our nation’s largest food assistance program, serving forty-two million people and supporting countless jobs throughout the economy, including along the food supply chain. That is why we were deeply concerned to see media reports suggesting that USDA’s inaction will unnecessarily result in SNAP running out of funding by October 31. Any lapse in SNAP funding will have devastating impacts for program beneficiaries, reduce hours and wages for food workers in every state and congressional district in the country, compromise worker safety for food workers, threaten the jobs of SNAP eligibility determination workers and hurt local economies.
SNAP is an economic multiplier. Each $1 spent by SNAP generates up to $1.80 in economic activity that is felt throughout the economy, spurring spending in the food chain—from farmers and ranchers to food manufacturers and truckers to grocers and store employees—and beyond.1
1 See Patrick Canning and Brian Stacy, “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Economy: New Estimates of the SNAP Multiplier,” USDA Economic Research Service, July 2019, https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/93529/err-265.pdf?v=2789.4 (Relevant research summarized at Table 1, p.7)
SNAP creates union jobs along the food supply chain. Union members are on meat-cutting floors, delivering and processing food, processing SNAP benefits, picking and harvesting the food that ends up on dinner tables, working in America’s forests, and checking out your constituents at the grocery store. SNAP is vital to creating good jobs for hundreds of thousands of American families.
SNAP serves people of all ages and from all types of communities—rural, urban, suburban, and veterans.2 Four in five SNAP households (81%) have a child, a person aged 60, or older or a person with disabilities.3 Between 2018 and 2023, 80 percent of U.S. SNAP households included at least one working person.4
2 See https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/snap-helps-12-million-veterans-with-low-incomes-including-thousands-in
3 See “Characteristics of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2020,” USDA, November 2022, https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resourcefiles/Characteristics2020-Summary.pdf
4 https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/SNAP-National-Data-Fact-Sheet.pdf
The USDA has several tools available that would enable SNAP benefits to be paid through, or close to, the end of November. First, the USDA must use the contingency funding currently available for SNAP. Second, the USDA has authority to transfer additional funds from the Section 32 Agriculture Adjustment Account to cover the remaining amount needed to fully fund SNAP in November in the absence of appropriations. Recently, the USDA employed its interchange authority to transfer $300 million in tariff funds from Section 32 to the WIC account to maintain WIC benefits during the shutdown.5
5https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/10/10/congress/usda-wic-tariff-revenue-nutrition-benefits-trump-00600666
Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance. We urge you to immediately communicate the USDA’s plans to disburse the contingency funding to state agencies and utilize all available legal authorities so that American families can receive benefits without interruption.
We urge the Administration to invest our hard-earned tax dollars in agriculture policies that create the good-paying jobs our families and communities need. The Administration can and must take action immediately to ensure that millions of families across the country can rely on SNAP benefits to continue putting food on their tables.
Sincerely,
AFL-CIO
Actors' Equity Association
AFT
Alliance for Retired Americans
American Federation of Musicians
American Federation of School Administrators
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
BCTGM International Union
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
International Association of Machinists (“IAM Union”)
International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)
International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
National Education Association
Seafarers International Union
Service Employees International Union
Transport Workers Union of America
Union Veterans Council, AFL-CIO
United Auto Workers (UAW)
United Food and Commercial Workers
United Steelworkers (USW)
Utility Workers Union of America
Writers Guild of America East