Copyright MassLive
Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell hopes the Trump administration will “do the right thing” and comply with two New England judges’ orders to use its emergency funding to pay for the nation’s low-income food program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. In separate rulings on Friday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani from Massachusetts issued an order requiring the government utilize its $6 billion in contingency funds for SNAP. Talwani also told the federal government that if $6 billion is not enough to fully fund the program, other resources can be tapped into, and to let the court know by the end of Monday how they plan to move forward with funding The order came alongside a Rhode Island judge’s order, Hon. John McConnell, who also ruled from the bench that SNAP must be funded using at least the contingency funds and asked for an update on progress by Monday. Campbell held a press conference Friday afternoon to discuss the orders, saying the federal government must fund the program “at least partially, and should do so quickly as possible.” “Today, the Court made clear that the Trump administration cannot simply choose not to spend it,” Campbell said, in reference to the $6 billion in contingency funds the USDA holds for SNAP. “They cannot simply choose to let children go without nourishment because they need while they need to learn and grow and thrive. They cannot simply choose to let elders starve because they can’t stretch their fixed incomes to the end of the month,” Campbell said. She told reporters that the order issued in Boston only applied to the 25 states listed in her lawsuit. The Trump administration — amid an ongoing government shutdown — claimed that money is set to run out for SNAP by Nov. 1. More than 1 million Massachusetts residents are enrolled in SNAP benefits with Gov. Maura Healey releasing $4 million for local food banks on Thursday to help them ride out the stoppage of the program. People with disabilities, children and elderly individuals and college communities are expected to suffer greatly under the cuts to the SNAP program. “If they choose not to fully fund this program or don’t act quick enough, the health and well-being of millions of Americans who will go hungry will be on their hands, not because they couldn’t help them, but because they chose not to,” Campbell said.
