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Hi, this is Aaron and I'm with my nine-year-old son Beckett. We're washing or shuffling the tiles as we prepare to teach our next mahjong lesson in Atlanta,

Highlands, New Jersey. This podcast was recorded at 12.23 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this.

But we'll have completed the Charleston with a new set of mahjong players. Okay, here's the show. That's so cute. Yeah, I was just talking to Elena Moore about wanting to learn that game. I've never played before. I know. It feels like a good thing to know how to do, and I don't know how to do it. Yeah. And I did think, I don't know when you heard that,

I knew it was board games. I knew it was something game adjacent. I thought it was mancala. Board game activation. Yeah, right? Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Stephen Fowler. I cover politics. I'm Barbara Sprint. I cover Congress.

And today on the show, the federal program millions of low-income Americans rely on I'm Stephen Fowler. I cover politics. I'm Barbara Sprint. I cover Congress.

And today on the show, the federal program millions of low-income Americans rely on for food is about to run out of money on November 1st this Saturday because of the government shutdown.

Stephen, let's start there. Some parts of the government still operate during a government shutdown, but why isn't the federal food stamp program, also known as SNAP, one of them? Well, SNAP is a mandatory benefit, but it is funded through the annual appropriations

process.

Right now, there are no annual appropriations because of the government shutdown and Congress's

inability to pass a spending plan, So there is no money available to spend

on the benefits. And that's what the Trump administration says is the case. There are, however,

contingency funds that Congress put together. It's about $6 billion or so in accounts. But the Trump

administration says that those cannot be used for

SNAP benefits. In fact, they say it's illegal to use them for these benefits. That seems a little

strange to me. I mean, contingency funds, I guess I'm a lay person, but that sounds like exactly,

what is the point of a contingency fund, if not for a moment like this?

Well, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says the contingency fund is supposed to be spent on

contingencies like natural disasters or other unexpected things that pop up, and they say it's

supposed to supplement regularly scheduled funds that go out, and since there are no regularly

...