SNAP is an extremely effective government program. Not only does it uplift more than one million people in Massachusetts, for every $1.00 spent of SNAP, $1.54 is put back into the local economy including local businesses and family farms.
What is happening to SNAP?
As it stands, due to the Republican led government shutdown (Trump isn’t even in DC to negotiate a solution to slashing healthcare funding), benefits are set to not be distributed in November. This will have devastating consequences for residents and families across the Commonwealth. Many SNAP recipients depend on these benefits for their entire monthly grocery budget. Here in Somerville, over 6,700 individuals depend on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their families.
Once the government shutdown is resolved, the Department of Transitional Assistance (or DTA), the state level agency that oversees and distributes SNAP here in Massachusetts, has advised that they will do everything in their power to distribute the funds as quickly as they can, but this will not happen immediately.
On top of the government shutdown, massive changes were made to SNAP during the Budget Reconciliation Bill (or One Big Beautiful Bill) in July. There are many changes to SNAP from the budget bill in July, but the two biggest are an expansion of strict work requirements for older adults and parents of children over the age of 14 and eliminating eligibility for certain immigrants including refugees and asylees. Nearly 100,000 residents here in Massachusetts will be subject to the new work requirement and roughly 9,500 immigrants will lose eligibility within the next year. These changes will start making it more difficult for residents to get SNAP on a rolling basis over the next twelve plus months. Mass Law Reform Institute put together a document outlining the changes from OBBB that you can find here.
What can be done?
First and foremost, the Republicans, who control the House, Senate, and the White House, can choose to negotiate in good faith with the Democrats to prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing. Healthcare subsidies from the Affordable Care Act are set to expire November 1st which would double healthcare premium costs for more than 20 million people. This is the main sticking point and why the Federal government is still shut down.
I recently signed on to a bipartisan letter from Massachusetts legislators urging Trump to supplement and transfer available funds to continue SNAP for the duration of the shutdown.
At the time of writing this, it does not look like either option is realistic in the short term since just last week the Trump administration confirmed the Department of Agriculture declined to use nearly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep SNAP going during the shutdown.
As a result, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has joined 24 other states to sue the Trump administration to try and force the US Department of Agriculture to use the reserve funds to keep the program going during the shutdown.
One option available is Massachusetts can use the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund or “rainy day fund” to cover the costs. This account currently holds over $8 billion dollars and historically has been used during each recession over the past two decades. While funding all $240 million that the state receives to fund SNAP would be an unprecedented gargantuan expense and given the additional cuts we are bracing for including LIHEAP (assistance with home energy bills), Head Start, and the impending cuts to healthcare, all combined are not sustainable; I am advocating for Massachusetts to set aside funds for food insecurity similar to what has been proposed in Minnesota, New York, California, Colorado, and other municipalities to support our most vulnerable residents.
Rainy Day Fund Year-End Balances, FY87-FY20
(Inflation Adjusted, Millions 2020 $s)
