With federal food assistance set to dry up this week, Maryland lawmakers are convening a hearing to see if there’s a way to extend benefits through the end of the year.

President Donald Trump’s administration has warned that federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will run out as the federal government shutdown continues. The Trump administration will not tap a contingency fund that could keep benefits going in the short term.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, meanwhile, will not tap state funds to keep SNAP going for the one in nine residents who rely on the program to keep food on the table — at least not without an assurance that the state would get paid back.

That’s left many wondering what will happen to people who need the food aid.

A Maryland House of Delegates committee will meet Wednesday to hear from analysts about the scope of the program and potential funding options, “with the hope that there’s money there that we can extend benefits temporarily for people who need it, at least through the holidays,” said Del. Ben Barnes, chair of the Appropriations Committee.

More than 680,000 Maryland residents receive aid through SNAP, with an average monthly benefit of $180. SNAP participants’ allotments are loaded onto benefits cards monthly.

Over the course of this budget year, the state had expected to receive about $1.6 billion for Maryland SNAP participants.

“For hundreds of thousands of Marylanders, this is a catastrophic moment,” said Barnes, a Democrat representing parts of Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties. “The House is going to do its due diligence to see if there’s any way to extend these benefits.”

Del. Mark Chang, vice chair of the committee, said he’s hearing from people worried about the future of SNAP and their benefits.

Chang said lawmakers have spent the past few years weathering financial storms.

“Now we’re facing another storm. We’ll do what we can to brace ourselves for it,” the Anne Arundel County Democrat said.

The state government has $3.5 billion in cash available, but if some of that money is used for SNAP and not reimbursed, other government programs could potentially end up short of money, according to the Moore administration.

“I have been clear that there is no state that has the balance sheet to cover when the federal government says: ‘You know what? We’re just going to leave you on your own,’” Moore said Friday.

The state issued a warning last week that SNAP benefits could run out without action.

Moore and his administration have been invited to the briefing; the governor’s office didn’t immediately say if the administration would participate.