1. United States
2. Okla.
3. Letter

As an Oklahoma resident who has dedicated my professional career to working with Oklahoma nonprofits, I write with urgent alarm regarding the government shutdown and its direct, devastating impact on our state’s most vulnerable citizens. The continued failure to reach a bipartisan resolution is unacceptable. This impasse is not merely a political dispute; it is a direct threat to the food security of nearly 700,000 Oklahomans. We have been notified that federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be suspended starting November 1st. I draw your specific attention to programs like Bridges of Norman, which provides stable housing and comprehensive support for unaccompanied high school students who are homeless through no fault of their own. These young people rely heavily on SNAP benefits to buy groceries. When these benefits halt, Bridges—and the heroic efforts of our local food banks—will be instantly overwhelmed trying to feed these essential students. Everyone deserves reliable access to food. To place the burden of feeding our most vulnerable minors entirely on nonprofit shelters because of congressional inaction is truly despicable. I implore you to immediately pivot from political posturing to genuine, bipartisan negotiation to reopen the government and restore full funding to these essential safety-net programs. Your constituents expect leadership, not deadlock. We are professionals, advocates, and voters who are watching this crisis unfold in real-time. We will remember which leaders chose to protect the needy and which chose to prolong this harmful shutdown. Resolve this crisis now