BATON ROUGE - Starting Saturday, people who receive SNAP benefits will not receive more money if the federal government remains closed.

As a result, Louisiana lawmakers are trying to pull from state funds to ensure residents don't go hungry.

"Time is of the essence," State Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, said. "That's our most vulnerable population."

Nearly 800,000 people in Louisiana receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

On Friday, Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order instructing state lawmakers to cover the cost of the program for the first four days of November if the federal shutdown continues into that month. That same day, the State House of Representatives voted 97 to 0 to urge the Louisiana Department of Health to use $150 million to pay for SNAP during the ongoing shutdown.

"Going back to LDH, that was our best avenue, finding the dollars within their budget," McFarland said.

If the federal shutdown extends into December, McFarland says leaders would then have to vote to allocate money from the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund to reimburse the health department, after using available funds in November.

"We need to get it out of the Senate and passed, and that way LDH would still have the time to get those dollars together and backfill that before November the first," McFarland said.

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