Virginia will use its budget surplus to create a temporary replacement for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program if the ongoing government shutdown stretches into November, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday.
The new program—Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance, or VENA—will begin issuing payments to Electronic Benefit Transfer cards on Nov. 3. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ordered states to pause all SNAP payments starting Nov. 1 due to the shutdown, which began in early October after Congress failed to pass appropriations bills or a short-term funding measure.
VENA will mirror SNAP’s structure by splitting recipients into three groups, with payments distributed every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday rather than in a single monthly allotment. Youngkin said roughly $37.5 million per week will go to about 850,000 Virginians who rely on SNAP according to the Virginia Mercury.
“Because we are designing this in real time, we need to pay the first benefits on a Monday,” Youngkin said during his announcement at the state Capitol. Acknowledging the hardship for families expecting their usual Nov. 1 benefits, he moved $1 million to Virginia’s food banks after they warned they could not absorb a surge in demand. (RELATED: Split Tickets Could Make a Comeback in Virginia’s 2025 Elections)
Youngkin said the state can fund VENA through the end of next month but hopes Congress resolves the shutdown first. He blamed Democrats for prolonging it, saying, “To be honest, I think our nation will be in a state of complete disarray if the Democrats in the Senate continue to drag out this complete shutdown and hostage-taking that they have engineered.” He argued they are “putting programs like SNAP at risk,” calling the situation a moral failure.
Democrats countered that Republicans are responsible for the impasse. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner criticized GOP leaders for failing to protect food benefits, saying they “chose to sell out working families as part of the Big Ugly Law in order to offset the cost of tax breaks for billionaires.”
As tensions rise in Washington, Virginians like Richmond mother Asia Broadie are simply trying to navigate the uncertainty. Balancing work, parenting, and nursing assistant training, she said feeding her children takes careful planning: “They’re growing and they’re eating — it goes quick.”
Youngkin said other states have already called for guidance as they confront their own fallout from the shutdown. “We’re leading different states in different circumstances,” he said. “And I think we have decided that we’re just going to get this done.”
The governor sharply criticized Democrats in Congress for the shutdown, arguing they are “dragging out this complete shutdown and hostage-taking that they have engineered.” He said their refusal to negotiate puts programs like SNAP at risk and “defies any sense of morality.” (RELATED: $40M Lawsuit Claims Virginia School Ignored Warnings Before 6-Year-Old Shot Teacher)