Jennifer Ludden

The contingency funds fall short of SNAP's November budget, so the Trump administration may decide to issue only partial payments.

It has warned that would be logistically challenging and time-consuming.

The administration has until Monday to decide on a plan.

States and cities across the country are shifting their own money and stepping up food donations to help millions of low-income people get by despite this loss of food aid.

Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.

The federal government usually sends SNAP funding to states well before the first of the month because it takes days to distribute it onto people's debit-like cards.

Now, there's an added complication.

The Agriculture Department's contingency money falls short of full SNAP funding for November.

The administration has said calculating partial payments would be a logistical nightmare that could take weeks.

States and cities across the country have been preparing for a lapse.

They're ramping up donations to food banks, offering protections if people fall behind on their bills, even shifting their own budgets to pay some amount of food aid to snap recipients temporarily.

Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.

Last month, the head of HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity put out a long memo explaining why and how they are changing priorities.

Basically, and this is interesting, the memo accuses previous administrations of going beyond the law to protect not just individuals but groups of people.

It cites things like gender identity, environmental justice, and race-based guidance, and it says those will no longer be a priority.

The memo also says HUD is reviewing its approach to redlining that could include cases where, say, someone in a largely Black neighborhood has trouble getting a loan.

Early this year, Stephanie Rogers and her two daughters moved in with her mom.

It was to save money and also a hedge against mass layoffs and the chance of another shutdown.

Rogers works for the FDA and is a chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

She remembers the 2018 shutdown that dragged out 35 days, so this time she made a painful decision.