Governor Dan McKee is holding a 12:45 p.m. press conference at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank to announce a plan to support more than 140,000 residents who are at risk of losing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits because of the federal government shutdown.

The US Department of Agriculture posted a message on its website over the weekend declaring SNAP benefits would not be issued to approximately 42 million Americans Nov. 1 because “the well has run dry.” The agency blamed Senate Democrats for the shutdown.

While Republicans and Democrats point fingers at the national level, McKee’s 2026 Democratic primary opponent, Helena Foulkes, has called on McKee to declare a state of emergency, in part to mobilize the National Guard to “assist with logistics and food distribution.”

It’s unclear how McKee might immediately address the SNAP cuts, but the issue has quickly become the administration’s most pressing immediate priority. 

Roughly one in eight Rhode Islanders receive SNAP benefits – including 46,000 under the age of 18 – to the tune of $29 million a month. The Trump administration has said states won’t be reimbursed if they tap into contingency funds to keep paying SNAP benefits.

Advocates in other states – including Massachusetts – are urging governors and lawmakers to tap into rainy day funds to cover SNAP benefits for November. New Hampshire has rolled out a $2 million plan for November.

Rhode Island's rainy day fund is around $300 million, which is on the lower side relative to the budgets of other states, according to the Pew Research Center. The organization estimates that the state could rely solely on its rainy day fund to fund the government – as a whole, not just SNAP – for about 19 days, well below the 50-state median of 47 days.