States in Emergency Mode as Trump GOP Refuses to Fund Food Aid for Poor Americans

As the Trump administration refuses to use existing federal funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, governors are stepping up to help the 42 million low-income Americans nationwide who are set to miss their collective $8 billion in monthly SNAP benefits, as long as the US government shutdown over healthcare continues in November.

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday declared a state of emergency and committed an additional $65 million in new state funds for food assistance, bringing the total she's announced in recent days to $106 million.

"The Trump administration is cutting food assistance off for 3 million New Yorkers, leaving our state to face an unprecedented public health crisis and hurting our grocers, bodegas, and farmers along the way," she said in a statement. "Unlike Washington Republicans, I won't sit idly by as families struggle to put food on the table."

While Hochul's funding for food banks and pantries has won her praise, Citizen Action of NY, Hunger Free America, and VOCAL-NY are calling on her to go even further. They said in a joint statement that "we agree that the federal government is illegally, immorally, and senselessly denying food assistance to 42 million people," but "the facts don't support Gov. Hochul's claim that no state can fund SNAP benefits to their residents."

"We urge her to use state funds to pay for all or some of November SNAP benefits, just as multiple other states have already done," the groups said. They noted that Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Democratic Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer "committed to funding SNAP benefits for the entire month of November," while Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made a similar commitment for the first 10 days of the month, at which point the state government will revisit the situation.

Other governors are taking action more in line with Hochul. As the New York Times detailed: "California is releasing $80 million to bolster food banks in the state. Connecticut is allocating $3 million for that purpose, and Minnesota $4 million. On Thursday, Illinois set aside $20 million—$10 million from a new emergency reserve fund and $10 million from the state’s Department of Human Services—for seven food banks."

"In Hawaii, Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, is diverting a $100 million surplus from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to help families with children pay their housing and utility bills, freeing up money in the family budget to be spent on food instead," according to the Times.

Arizona Mirror reported that Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs "announced Wednesday that she would disburse $1.5 million in leftover American Rescue Plan Act Covid relief funds to Arizona food banks, and that she would put another $300,000 toward an emergency fresh food program called Food Bucks Now."

Over two dozen Democrat-led states are also suing the Trump administration over the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) refusing to use a contingency fund to at least partly cover November SNAP benefits. A federal judge appointed to the District of Massachusetts by former President Barack Obama began hearing arguments in the case on Thursday morning.

US District Judge Indira Talwani "appeared skeptical of arguments by Justice Department attorney Jason Altabet that the contingency funds could not be used to fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown," Reuters reported. During the hearing in Boston, Talwani told the government's lawyer, "You have money that was appropriated that could be used during this fiscal year."

A coalition of charitable and faith-based nonprofits, local governments, small businesses, and workers' rights groups filed a similar lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island on Thursday. The complaint, filed by Democracy Forward, declared that the Trump administration has "needlessly plunged SNAP into crisis" and asked the court to "immediately grant temporary relief to ensure that millions of Americans can continue to receive essential SNAP benefits."

President Donald Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins are under similar pressure from the more than 50,000 people who have signed a MoveOn Civic Action petition, launched Wednesday night in partnership with Rural Organizing.

"Donald Trump is holding food for families hostage to force huge cuts to healthcare," said Rural Organizing's Shawn Sebastian. The government shutdown began at the start of the month because the White House and congressional Republicans wanted to maintain their funding plans, while Democrats pushed legislation to undo the GOP's recent Medicaid cuts and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. Americans who get health insurance on ACA marketplaces are facing an imminent premium surge.

Sebastian said that "people all over the country, particularly rural families who will be the ones disproportionately harmed by Trump's cruel games, are speaking out for themselves and for their neighbors, by demanding USDA Secretary Rollins meet her responsibilities to the American people, follow precedent, and continue food assistance programs during the shutdown."

Two New York Democrats on Capitol Hill, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Josh Riley, made a similar demand in a Thursday letter to Trump and Rollins signed by the state's entire Democratic congressional delegation, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

"With less than two days before benefits are halted, we urge USDA to use SNAP's available contingency funds to pay out November benefits, which would cover more than two-thirds of all benefits," they wrote. "USDA can then use its transfer authority, as it did for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), to cover the remaining gap and ensure benefits remain uninterrupted."