Rachel Abrams

You think people might get really desperate?

Have you ever had to make a choice like that?

Coming up, my colleague Tony Rom explains the standoff in Washington that's delayed SNAP funding.

We'll be right back.

So, Tony, we just heard from people that our producers interviewed at a food pantry in West Virginia, and we heard a lot of confusion and a lot of worry.

Could you explain what is going on with SNAP funding right now?

You've been following some legal challenges to the administration's position that it wouldn't or couldn't release any SNAP funding.

What is the status of those challenges?

Is there any precedent for any of this?

Has anything like this happened before?

So I can imagine that this is really confusing to the 40 million people that rely on this funding to feed themselves or their families.

Can you remind us who are these folks?

What does the money get used for and how exactly does the program work?

How did SNAP end up in the crosshairs of the administration to begin with?

Basically, what you're saying is that during the shutdown, the administration has found ways, sometimes questionable, sometimes temporary, but nevertheless has found ways to pay for other things it needs to fund, like the military, for example, other federal employees.

So this feels a little bit more deliberate.

And I just sort of wonder what purpose withholding SNAP serves politically is.

How does this fit into sort of the larger agenda of the Trump administration vis-a-vis cutting the government, shrinking the government, cutting programs?

So now that the administration has said that it will comply with a court order and find a way to fund the SNAP program, at least partially, how quickly does that mean that people who receive SNAP benefits will actually see that money in their accounts?

Which makes me wonder, just to go back to West Virginia for a minute, a state that Trump won handily in the last election.