(The Center Square) – Anticipating food assistance to millions of New Yorkers halting on Saturday, a state of emergency has been declared by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
She said an additional $65 million of state emergency relief funds will be used to keep Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, colloquially known as SNAP or food stamps, flowing if they run dry on Saturday. The funding comes on top of $41 million the governor fast-tracked for emergency food assistance earlier this week.
“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,” Hochul said in remarks at a food pantry. “Unlike Washington Republicans, I won’t sit idly by as families struggle to put food on the table.
“Today, I’m declaring a state of emergency and am committing additional state funds for emergency food assistance to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry.”
Louisiana and Vermont have also used the term state of emergency in declarations of response related to SNAP benefits.
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1 and entered the 30th day on Thursday. Hochul said New York distributes about $650 million a month for SNAP, and the state can’t backfill the loss of federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food assistance program, says it has no plans to tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through SNAP flowing into November. It says it doesn’t have the authority to spend surplus revenue.
The Republican majority U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution in September. The Republican majority Senate is stalled in filibuster led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., unable to get seven votes to reach the threshold of 60 needed to pass the legislation and unwilling to compromise on the House legislation.
Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the deputy whip in the chamber, in a network interview said, “Shutdowns are terrible, and, of course, there will be families who will suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage points we have.”
Schumer has asked for closed-door meetings with second-term Republican President Donald Trump, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota. Transparency has been Johnson’s repeated response.
Democratic Attorney General Letitia James joined a lawsuit earlier this week asking a federal judge in Massachusetts to order the release of emergency SNAP funds.
Democrats and Republicans have filed dueling bills in Congress to fund SNAP during the shutdown, but none have advanced. Earlier this week, second-term Republican President Donald Trump suggested that he will find money for SNAP benefits.
Nationwide, more than 42 million people purchase fresh produce and other groceries through SNAP, according to the USDA. Eligibility is based on participants’ income and household size, among other factors. The average monthly benefit is $187 per person, according to USDA.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., blasted Democrats in a fiery floor speech Wednesday that chastised them for consistently voting against proposals to reopen the government.
“This isn’t a political game,” Thune said in remarks on the Senate floor. “These are real people’s lives that we’re talking about.”
