Summary
- Governor Kathy Hochul declared state of emergency for food banks.
- $65 million state funds allocated for emergency food assistance.
- Federal SNAP program funding set to lapse on November 1.
As the federal government shutdown jeopardizes Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) payments for roughly 42 million Americans, Oregon and Virginia have also declared emergencies, releasing state funds for emergency food assistance.
Additionally, on Wednesday, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Vermont declared that they will be helping low-income households that depend on food stamps to eat enough.
The funds will support already-stretched community resources like food banks and pantries.
According to data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), New York state receives around $650 million in federal cash each month for Snap benefits.
The roughly $8 billion monthly cost of November Snap benefits has not been funded by either the Trump administration or Congress.
The majority of states, including New York, have stated that they are unable to cover the benefits on their own. On Thursday, the Legal Aid Society stated that New York should use state funds to finance Snap since it has the financial capacity to do so.
“The Trump administration is cutting food assistance off for three million New Yorkers, leaving our state to face an unprecedented public health crisis and hurting our grocers, bodegas and farmers along the way,”
Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“Unlike Washington Republicans, I won’t sit idly by as families struggle to put food on the table.”
Virginia's Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, stated that the state will use its excess funds to cover Snap benefits for up to one month. The Democratic governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, announced a 60-day food security emergency and pledged $5 million to food banks on Wednesday.
In a letter to Donald Trump on Thursday, twenty-one Democratic governors demanded that USDA use contingency money and other resources to pay benefits for November.
“Halting Snap benefits will put millions of Americans at risk of food insecurity and poverty. Snap is more than a food assistance program, it is a lifeline,”
the letter said.
A coalition of more than two dozen Democratic states and governors sued the administration this week to issue the contingency funds and appeared Thursday before a federal judge in Boston.
What accountability measures track the emergency spending?
Responsibility measures that track exigency spending generally include enhanced translucency, detailed reporting conditions, and independent checkups to insure finances are used duly and effectively.
These measures inclusively produce an ecosystem of responsibility combining superintendent, legislative, and public oversight, which helps insure exigency finances achieve intended issues and maintain public trust. Similar norms have been recommended by governance experts and strengthened through recent legislation and oversight bodies following once heads like the COVID- 19 epidemic.
New York's emergency spending on food banks will be subject to robust reporting, auditing, and scrutiny mechanisms designed to promote translucency and help abuse of the allocated finances.