Government Shutdown Impacts on Kansas Kids and Families
KAC Policy Advisors | October 28, 2025
The federal government has been in a government shutdown since October 1 after Congress failed to pass a bill funding the federal government beyond September 30. Federal government shutdowns result in many services being paused due to lack of funding, furloughing federal employees, and forcing some federal employees to work without paychecks because their jobs are deemed essential. The longer a shutdown continues, the more likely it is that critical programs – like food assistance and WIC – will be unfunded and millions of children and families will have to go without.
If Congress doesn’t act by October 28, that will be the reality for 188,000 Kansans, who won’t receive November benefits that help their families get a bit of grocery help each month. At the heart of the shutdown is a political disagreement over Congress extending expiring enhanced premium tax credits for the millions of Americans who purchase health insurance on Healthcare.gov, also called the ACA Marketplace. Around 200,000 Kansans (including nearly 19,000 Kansas kids) access coverage through Healthcare.gov.
These enhanced premium tax credits (passed in 2021) help keep ACA Marketplace insurance monthly premium payments at no- or low-cost to those who qualify for subsidized coverage. Since 2021, Kansas has seen Marketplace enrollment more than double in size.
The enhanced credits expire on December 31, 2025, unless Congress agrees to extend them. Without action, when open enrollment begins November 1, enrollees will face soaring premiums costs, forcing many to choose to drop insurance coverage altogether because they can longer afford it.
If the shutdown continues much longer, many programs and services that Kansas kids, families, and organizations rely will be severely impacted or stopped completely. Here are a few of those impacts.
SNAP and WIC
SNAP
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are in danger of lapsing on November 1, leaving 93,000 Kansas families without money for food.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the federal agency responsible for the administration of SNAP benefits, has communicated that SNAP funding will run out at the end of October if the federal government shutdown is still ongoing.
SNAP benefits are issued once per month within the first ten days of the month, depending on the recipient’s last name. Those food benefits are spent down as families buy food over the course of the month. By the end of the month, food insecurity increases and the probability of a day without eating roughly triples from the first to the last day of the month.
This means, as October draws to a close, families’ food budgets are beginning to run low. In a typical cycle, they could expect the funds to be replenished in the first days of the new month, but that will not occur if USDA is unable to issue SNAP benefits. Within the first few days of November, approximately 42 million Americans will not be able to afford food. If benefits continue to be stalled into mid-November, the crisis will become particularly acute.
Those who are unable to buy food will turn to food pantries. Food pantries, who provide only one meal for every nine provided by SNAP, were already struggling to meet increased demand with fewer resources. SNAP benefits amount to about $34 million per month for SNAP recipients in Kansas; it is unlikely food pantries will be able to backfill that loss.
This crisis could extend well beyond food insecurity. While SNAP benefits can only be used on groceries, those dollars are an integral part of a family’s budget. Not eating for a month isn’t an option, and funds for food will need to be pulled from elsewhere in the budget. Families will be required to decide which parts of their budget are optional and choose not to pay bills like car payments, electric bills, health care, and rent, leaving folks without a car, a refrigerator, medicine, or a home.
WIC Program
While the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) shared mid-October that they expect to have enough funds to last into November for the 70,000 Kansans enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), that doesn’t mean enrollees aren’t being affected now.
Uncertainty remains on how long WIC staff will have funding available for their positions. Besides connecting families to WIC benefits, WIC staff connect pregnant and breastfeeding women, new moms, and kids under age five to nutrition and health education and healthy food, as well as serve as a key connector to numerous other services, like SNAP or Medicaid.
Also, certain children may require special formula to meet their diverse medical needs, including low birth weight, dietary issues like lactose intolerance, or metabolic disorders. Families sometimes can get this specialized formula at retail stores or pharmacies, if the store accepts WIC benefits. But in some situations, the specialized formula must be prescribed by the child’s medical provider and must be ordered.
In the past, WIC families needing specialized formula would pick up their specialized formula at a local WIC office, but due to the shutdown, starting on October 10, 2025, Kansas WIC began pausing the shipment of these specialized formulas to local offices. According to KDHE, if your child is on KanCare, impacted families can contact their managed care company (either Sunflower, United, or Healthy Blue) to have the formula paid for by KanCare and shipped directly to home. Families not on KanCare should contact their health care provider to prescribe alternative formulas available through local vendors or pharmacies.
This is just another example of how the shutdown is impacting food security for the littlest Kansans.
Early Learning and K-12
Head Start
Head Start programs in Kansas employ roughly 2,500 staff members, who provide care to 6,300 children across the state. With the program being fully federally funded, two Kansas programs whose grant cycles begin on November 1 may not receive their next grant in November. This has caused uncertainty about how they will be able to continue to serve the 451 children enrolled in those programs and puts those programs at risk of closure.
Child and Adult Care Food Program
Federally funded, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimburses child care providers for the meals they serve to children in their care. In 2024, providers in Kansas served millions of meals to children across the state. This is an important source of nutrition for children in child care settings.
The shutdown’s impact to this program is still somewhat unclear, but there are funds available for the October claims, which will be paid in November. Providers are encouraged to continue submitting their claims and the USDA is working to ensure the program continues without interruption for the November claims.
K-12 Special Education
Recently, some special education staff at the U.S. Department of Education were terminated (not just furloughed like many federal government workers), which could change the way families get the support they need when something goes awry with special education services.
Many of those terminated staff handled details related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Families may feel a loss of accountability without the Office for Civil Rights operating at this time. This office reviewed complaints about civil rights discrimination and played a crucial role in ensuring equal access to education, regardless of which state a child resides in.
Health
Medicaid and CHIP
Due to how federal funding flows to states for their Medicaid program and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), enrolled families do not need to worry about their state health coverage being cut off at this time. Additionally, furloughed staff who work on Medicare and Healthcare.gov enrollment are being brought back as open enrollment periods begin.
But with thousands more federal Department of Health and Human Services employees remaining furloughed, states and organizations with funding- and grant-related questions do not have access to their staff liaisons. Without their federal connections, important work is likely to be delayed.
Clinics Serving Uninsured and Underinsured Kansans
Health care access at Kansas safety net clinics, which serve uninsured or underinsured Kansans, may soon be restricted, as the federal funding for 21 community health clinics expired on September 30, 2025. While the shutdown is in place, no new funding will be sent to these clinics. So while those clinics remain open for now, expenses will continue to pile up as the shutdown continues. Services may be restricted in the near future.
Infectious Disease
Uncertainty looms over federal monitoring of disease outbreaks, which is particularly concerning as flu and RSV season ramps up. No new flu surveillance weekly data has been released since September 26. While data continues to be updated around the nation’s continued measles outbreak, some disease surveillance work is paused, and public information messaging is limited.
Effective disease outbreak monitoring and responses function well when federal, state, and local health officials are in regular communication.
Additionally, confusion has increased during the shutdown as some CDC staff were laid off and then were immediately brought back, with agency officials citing data errors. The erroneous layoffs included staff managing measles and global Ebola outbreaks.
Large-Scale Economic Impacts
The longer the shutdown continues, the greater the economic impact will be. Government spending makes up approximately one-quarter of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), so as the government is unable to spend on the critical programs it funds, there is less economic activity in the United States.
In no small part, this is due to federal employees going without pay. Nearly 1.5 million federal workers are currently not getting paid. This is an incredible financial burden for those workers, but also for the broader economy as less spending impacts the communities where these employees live. At this point, these workers have missed two paychecks, but the effects on these employees, their families, and their communities will keep compounding with every day the shutdown continues.
In addition to workers not getting paid, it seems increasingly likely that SNAP benefits will not be going out for November, despite being apparently illegal, which amounts to approximately $8 billion not circulating in the U.S. economy. Taken together, the shutdown in government activity is reaching into the tens of billions of dollars in reduced economic activity.
Even as these effects rage through the economy, we are essentially flying blind as most data collection and reporting is suspended until the government reopens. One large impact from this is the delay of the monthly jobs report, which is among the timeliest economic data produced. Many private businesses rely on this report as part of their business strategy. With no data to take into account, these companies are more likely to move cautiously and could delay hiring.
As spending slows down, some businesses may be forced to reduce employees’ hours or even their overall headcount until the government reopens, but we won’t know that as long as this continues. In this way, the risk to the economy is even greater because we just won’t know the extent of the impacts until well after the government is back up and running.
What's Next
Every additional day the federal government shutdown lasts, the more that is at stake for millions of Americans. But any negotiation to end the shutdown that doesn’t include the extension of the enhanced premium tax credits is going to have devastating health and economic consequences for many Kansans.
Analysis shows that the average out-of-pocket expense for insurance premiums would more than double if the tax credits were allowed to expire, and the average person receiving health insurance through the Marketplace would be required to pay around $2,000 per month for insurance. The choice that has been set up is between millions of Americans temporarily losing food assistance or millions of Americans losing health insurance for the coming year.
But even if the shutdown continues into November, the USDA has the power to issue funds for SNAP. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has analysis showing the USDA has funding available to issue SNAP benefits for November, and that they are statutorily obligated to do so.
If the shutdown continues and the USDA does not issue SNAP benefits for November, everyday Kansans will need to step up to ensure their neighbors don’t go hungry or become homeless. While the loss of SNAP dollars will be difficult to backfill, donations can go a long way toward alleviating the crisis. It is recommended that donations go directly to food banks, as they have increased purchasing power and can stretch each dollar a lot farther. In Kansas, there are three food bank networks, each serving a different region of the state.
Kansas Food Bank covers most counties in the state, with the exception of the northeast quadrant. Harvesters serves most of northeast Kansas and 10 counties on the Missouri side, and Second Harvest covers Brown, Doniphan, and Atchison counties.
Without enough food to eat, Kansans cannot be healthy. And without affordable health care, Kansans may not be able to have a large enough grocery budget to cover every meal. Congress must get back to work and negotiate a bill that helps low- and moderate-income families access food and affordable health care. Anything less is unacceptable.
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