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Morrisey: Full November SNAP benefits now on EBT cards

Members of the West Virginia National Guard assisted Mountaineer Food Bank distribute more than 12,000 pounds of food to more than 270 families at Doddridge County Park on Wednesday. (Photo provided by West Virginia National Guard)

CHARLESTON – With the federal government shutdown ended, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said that full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for November should now be available.

In a press release Thursday afternoon, Morrisey said that full SNAP benefits for West Virginia recipients should be fully restored and available on electronic benefit transfer cards.

Speaking during his address Thursday morning to attendees of the 2025 Governor’s Energy Summit at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center, Morrisey said he expected to see full SNAP benefits restored to recipients by the start of the weekend.

“Last night, President (Donald) Trump signed the government reopening bill … into law,” Morrisey said. “This is significant, because as of today, or first thing tomorrow (Friday), all the SNAP recipients will have full November benefits on their card.”

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the U.S. Senate amendment to H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, in a 222-209 vote Wednesday night, with the bill going immediately to Trump’s desk for his signature.

The amended continuing resolution will fund the federal government through Jan. 30, 2026. The bill also included three full-year appropriations bills for the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as legislative operations.

Both U.S. Reps. Riley Moore and Carol Miller voted for the clean CR.

“I was happy to join my House colleagues in ending the Democrats’ hostage takeover of the federal government leading to the longest shutdown in our nation’s history,” said Miller, R-W.Va. “For 43 days, our service members have gone without pay, thousands of federal workers were furloughed, and essential programs, such as SNAP, were left unfunded.”

“Republicans held the line and did not cave to the Democrats’ insane $1.5 trillion wish list … We can now get back to work enacting the America First agenda,” said Moore, R-W.Va. “West Virginians work hard and expect their government to do the same. I’ll continue fighting for solutions that strengthen our economy, and deliver for the great people of the Mountain State.”

West Virginia is one of 11 states that have been unable to provide either partial or full SNAP benefits since the U.S. Department of Agriculture paused the program on Nov. 1. The federal government shutdown began on Oct. 1, the beginning of the new federal fiscal year.

While the House passed a clean CR at the end of September, the bill needed 60 votes in the 100-member U.S. Senate in order to overcome the filibuster and be fully considered. After more than a dozen failed votes, eight Senate Democrats agreed to support an amended CR in exchange for a vote in December on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

Issues between two different state vendors used by the Department of Human Services prevented the state from re-calculating partial SNAP benefits that a federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay out.

The Trump administration had agreed to issue a partial SNAP payment to the states for November after several court rulings, funding 65% of benefits. In West Virginia, that would be approximately $32.5 million for the state’s 270,000 SNAP recipients. The Trump administration was fighting other court rulings demanding it pay full SNAP benefits in November during the shutdown.

DoHS was supposed to recode their eligibility systems to calculate the reduced benefit amounts for every certified SNAP household, with the new benefit amounts being sent to EBT processors in “issuance files.” But issues between Optum State Government Solutions – which manages the DoHS the computer system that manages the state’s family assistance programs – and EBT card services vendor Fidelity Information Services have prevented the payment of partial SNAP benefits to date.

Since SNAP benefits were paused at the beginning of November, the Governor’s Office has provided $13 million from leftover COVID-era dollars in a contingency fund divided between the state’s two largest food banks, Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway and Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington. That’s on top of an additional $1.1 million already appropriated to the two food banks by the Legislature for the current fiscal year.

Morrisey was prepared to call the Legislature into special session next week to appropriate additional dollars had the federal government shutdown not ended Wednesday night. The governor also called up the West Virginia National Guard to help the food banks with food distribution, logistics and manpower.

“We’ve been involved in helping every West Virginian in need…to make sure no one goes hungry,” Morrisey said Thursday morning. “I want to thank everyone involved for the successful effort over the last 13 days because once again, West Virginians came together. So many people stepped up, they volunteered, they donated, and West Virginians didn’t go hungry. Our system worked.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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