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working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theshmit.org.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Today is the first day of the lapse in funding for the SNAP

Food Assistance Program. About 42 million Americans around the country rely on it for help. In Houston,

more than 400,000 households will be affected. Houston Public Media's Sydney Jackson has more.

With her two dogs Luna and McKito in tow,

Itso Perez waited in her car for roughly three hours

at a Houston Food Bank distribution site Saturday morning.

Born with Spina Bifida, the stay-at-home wife got a call

telling her that her benefits had been cut off.

There are other people that cannot work or they have disabilities also, not just other

people that they're receiving, but there's other people that are need in, probably more in need

that I, that I am. Two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to use emergency

funding for SNAP, but it's unclear when benefits could be resumed. For NPR News, I'm Sydney Jackson.

Open enrollments started today on health care.gov, the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

That's where people who don't get health insurance through their job or through a public

program like Medicare or Medicaid shop for coverage.

And millions of people are facing sticker shock.

And here, Selena Simmons-Duffin, has more on what people enrolling this year need to know.

Their premiums might be significantly higher. And that is because something called enhanced

subsidies that Congress first passed in 2021 are expiring, and that extra help to buy health

insurance is something that millions of people have relied on in the last few years. In fact,

...