‘Feed people, Mr. President’: Mass. Gov Healey demands with SNAP benefits set to run out
With food benefits for more than 1 million state residents just days away from potentially running out, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called on the Trump administration to dip into an emergency fund to keep people from going hungry.
"Feed people, Mr. President. Feed Americans. It's your job," the Democratic governor said Monday, as she lambasted President Donald Trump for planning to spend up to $300 million on a gilded new ballroom for the White House.
Without action, more than 40 million Americans are set to lose SNAP benefits by Nov. 1.
Funding for the program, often referred to as "food stamps," has become a political football between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill as the federal government shutdown drags into its fourth week."
Speaking to reporters after an unrelated event on Monday, Healey called on President Donald Trump to release contingency funds that would continue to fund benefits.
Up to 1.1 million people in the Bay State, many of them children, would be impacted if benefits stop.
Trump needs to do what "every other president has done in American history when there's been a federal shutdown," and that's ensure "that seniors, that people with disabilities are fed," Healey said.
"That's something that an American president should do," she continued. "It's something he owes to the American people."
Healey pushed back strongly Monday against suggestions that Massachusetts dip into its $8 billion Rainy Day Fund to cover some portion of any lost benefits.
"What needs to happen is the president of the United States needs to do what every other president in history has done, which is to use the contingency fund, billions of dollars, to fund the SNAP program to feed kids, seniors, people with disabilities across America during the pendency of this federal shutdown," she said.
"That's what needs to happen," Healey said,
Healey also brushed aside a question on why the state couldn't fund SNAP benefits when it had found billions of dollars to pay for its emergency shelter system.
At $240 million a month, "there's no way that a state, any state in the country, can begin to backfill," Healey said.
"Nor should they have to when there is a contingency fund that was set up precisely for this moment, that the president of the United States just needs to press to go on," she continued.
But there's a problem with that approach.
Last week, the U.S. Agriculture Department said that it can't dip into such funds during the shutdown, and that states won't be reimbursed if they move to cover expenses on their own, Axios reported, citing an internal agency memo .
"Unlike other reimbursable programs, SNAP allotments are fully federally funded," the agency asserted. "States are responsible for determining household benefits, and the movement of dollars through to the processors and ultimately to the retailers. There is no provision nor allowance under current law for States to cover the cost of benefits and be reimbursed."
Asked by a reporter whether the state had a plan B, Healey appealed to residents' sense of charity.
"The plan now, folks, is to rely on food pantries, to rely on food banks, to encourage those who can contribute to something like the United Way Response Fund," she said. "But, you know, that is what is happening. It is because of a decision that Donald Trump has made not to fund SNAP. It's completely unnecessary. This doesn't need to happen."
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