Hobbs calls Trump’s SNAP reversal ‘appalling’ as 923k Arizonans face loss of food aid
By Caitlin Sievers
Gov. Katie Hobbs is urging the Trump administration to use a $6 billion contingency fund to avoid cutting off federal food assistance to more than 923,000 Arizonans and 42 million Americans at the end of the week.
Hobbs joins other prominent Arizona Democrats in calling out President Donald Trump, along with congressional Republicans, for failing to release the money in the contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal low-income food aid program formerly known as food stamps.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP, had previously said it intended to use the contingency fund to continue November SNAP payments during the ongoing government shutdown, which began Oct. 1. But the Trump administration has since reversed course, putting 42 million people across the country at risk of going hungry if payments aren’t distributed as scheduled on Nov. 1.
Hobbs attributed the reversal to Trump’s pledge that he would use the shutdown to “cut Democrat programs” to gain the upper hand in negotiations to reopen the federal government.
“Vulnerable Arizonans cannot afford to be used as leverage by Washington Republicans,” Hobbs said in a written statement. “It’s appalling that this administration is choosing to take food out of the hands of Arizona families.”
SNAP provides food assistance to around 923,400 Arizonans, around 12% of the state’s population, according to information from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. More than 68% of SNAP recipients in the Grand Canyon State are in families with children, nearly 29% are in families with older or disabled adults and 40% of recipients are members of working families.
Hobbs on Monday sent a letter to Brooke Rollins, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging her to release the contingency funds.
“I’m writing to express my great alarm at the imminent suspension of SNAP benefits, the pantries that will go bare, and the children and families in Arizona who will soon go without meals,” Hobbs wrote.
Cutting off SNAP benefits would have “dire consequences,” she wrote, because neither the state government nor food banks have the resources to fill in for those lost benefits.
Hobbs joined U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, in demanding that the Trump administration fund SNAP benefits in November.
Both of Arizona’s senators joined with 44 other Senate Democrats in a letter last week to push Rollins to use the SNAP contingency fund for its intended purpose.
“Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance,” the senators wrote.
The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1, after Democrats refused to vote for Republicans’ stopgap funding bill unless they agreed to extend popular health care tax credits. Without the credits, those who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace would see their premiums soar.
Republicans control the presidency, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. But they need votes from Democrats in the Senate to clear a 60-vote threshold, and because Trump and the GOP refused to negotiate to win those votes, nearly all Democrats voted against the spending bill.
Both parties have blamed one another for the shutdown, with Republicans falsely claiming Democrats voted against the funding bill to protect health insurance for undocumented immigrants, while Democrats say they’re simply protecting families from untenable increases in their insurance payments.
In a microcosm of arguments at the federal level, Republican state Rep. Walt Blackman, of Snowflake, on Monday called on Hobbs to push Kelly and Gallego to vote to reopen the federal government to avoid the lapse in SNAP payments, and to “stop the harm they are inflicting on Arizona families.”
“With more than 400,000 Arizona families and 800,000 individuals relying on SNAP to put food on the table, Washington’s gridlock is causing real harm,” Blackman said in a statement. “Senators Kelly and Gallego have repeatedly voted against a clean continuing resolution that would keep the government open. They can help end this shutdown today. It’s time they do their job.”
Absent a vote to reopen the government, Blackman asked that Hobbs declare a state of emergency in Arizona to release funds to provide food assistance and to coordinate efforts to help families who rely on SNAP.
He said that she should task the Arizona Department of Economic Security with coordinating the efforts of counties, tribal governments and food banks and to partner with the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services and school district to open temporary centers to distribute food aid.
“Families in Navajo County, Gila County, and across rural Arizona are already struggling,” Blackman said in a written statement. “If Washington won’t act, Arizona must be ready. But Kelly, Gallego, and Hobbs could end this crisis today by putting politics aside and reopening the government.”
Living United for Change in Arizona, an immigrant rights organization, is already taking action with a rally at the Phoenix DES office planned for Thursday, when LUCHA will begin a food drive to help those who will go hungry without SNAP.
LUCHA said in a statement that thousands of rural schools and food pantries were prepping for skyrocketing demand if SNAP payments are delayed or canceled and that some families will have to choose between food and rent.
“Arizona families are paying the price of this shutdown,” Alejandra Gomez, executive director of LUCHA, said in a statement. “And now Republicans are threatening to cut their food, their dignity, and their future so billionaires can keep getting richer. This is moral bankruptcy.”
