(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has pledged up to $8 million in city funds – $4 million per month through 2025 – to offset the looming halt in federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits triggered by a congressional funding impasse.
A Senate vote to extend SNAP funding failed Wednesday amid a federal government shutdown entering its second month, meaning SNAP benefits won’t go out on Saturday. The cutoff could affect approximately 930,000 Washington residents, including more than 50,000 Seattleites, according to a civil emergency proclamation issued on Thursday by Harrell
SNAP eligibility for a family of four in 2025 caps net monthly income at about $32,150 per year, the federal poverty level for that family size.
Washington receives approximately $174 million in federal SNAP benefits monthly, with Seattle residents accounting for roughly $16 million, or about 9% of that total.
The $8 million in total funding will go toward city contracted food banks. The aid will cease when federal SNAP funding resumes.
“While the Trump administration is cruelly abandoning its duty to keep families fed, Seattle will step up to support our community,” Harrell said in a statement. “Our city has a strong network of local food banks, and we’re prepared to fill the gap left by the other Washington’s dysfunction with immediate action.”
On Tuesday, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced that Washington would send nearly $2.2 million per week in state aid to food banks throughout the state to cushion the impact of the SNAP cutoff.
At a Friday press conference, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said that “your government is failing you right now.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., interjected that “When she says ‘we have failed you,’ she means ‘We, the Democrats,’ OK?”
A podium sign branded the impasse “The Democrat Shutdown.”
On Friday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell ordered the Department of Agriculture to release accrued SNAP benefits “as soon as possible.” Separately, Judge Indira Talwani ruled the government is required by law to use emergency money for at least partial payments. The Trump administration has until Nov. 3 to tell the court if it plans to do so.
