SNAP

The Alabama Department of Human Resources has begun mailing out new chip-enabled EBT cards to SNAP benefit recipients.The upgraded cards offer enhanced security to block unauthorized out-of-state and online purchases.However, Alabama cardholders who wish to make such purchases can still do so by downloading the ConnectEBT Mobile App, visiting the ConnectEBT website or calling the EBT Customer Service phone number.

A bill that would place new restrictions on what items Alabama SNAP benefit recipients are allowed to purchase, has passed a Senate committee. Senate Bill 61, was approved by the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee. It calls for removing food and drinks with high sugar and sodium content.

Work requirements are kicking in for more older adults and parents of teenagers across the U.S. who get help with groceries through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The implementation dates vary by state. For Alabama lawmakers, the issue may be more of a political one.

State lawmakers are confronting the possibility of new major costs tied to SNAP benefits.This comes as new federal requirements under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are shifting administrative costs to states.The move forces Alabama to cover roughly 39-million-dollars.Beginning next year, the state could also face up to 200-million-dollars in addition expenses tied to payment error rates.

The shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Cook, the federal budget shutdown, and the selection of American Robert Prevost as Pope Leo the fourteenth back in May were among the Associated Press’ biggest stories of 2025, in Alabama and around the nation.

With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday that they are working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people who made do with little-to-no assistance for the past couple of weeks. Until recently, SNAP families and food banks in Alabama will have to subsist with pledges of emergency funding from Governor Kay Ivey and The State Department of Human Resources.

The government shutdown is triggering a wave of closures of Head Start centers, leaving working parents scrambling for child care and shutting some of the nation's neediest children out of preschool. The impact may include head start centers in Alabama.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly the debit cards that beneficiaries use to buy groceries could be reloaded after twin rulings by federal judges. That process often takes one to two weeks. The website USAfacts says 750,000 Alabamians use SNAP dollars to afford enough to eat.

Two federal judges ruled nearly simultaneously on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must to continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, using contingency funds during the government shutdown. An estimated 750,000 Alabamians depend on SNAP benefits to eat.

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday seemed skeptical of the Trump's administration's argument that SNAP benefits could be suspended for the first time in the food aid program's history because of the government shutdown. The website USA Facts says 750,000 Alabamians use SNAP benefits to buy groceries.