Californians’ benefits for California could be delayed by the shutdown, Newloom warns
Gov. Gavin Newlom issued a stark warning Monday that food benefits for millions of Californians coming in could be delayed on Nov. 1
The benefits, issued under the Healthy Food Access Program, or Snap, and formerly called food stamps, include federally funded benefits loaded onto Calffsh cards. They support about 5.5 million people.
NewsOM blamed the potential disruption of SNAP — and the broader shutdown — on President Trump and hit the timing of a possible cutoff just as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.
“Trump’s failure to open the Federal Government is now putting people’s lives at risk and making basic needs like food more expensive – just as the holidays are coming,” NewsOm said. “It’s long past time for Republicans in Congress to grow a backbone, stand up to Trump, and bring the American people back.”
The White House responded by blaming the shutdown on Democrats, as it has done before.
Abigail Jackson, spokesperson for the White House, said that the “Democrats’ decision to shut down the government hurts the American people across the country,” and that the Democrats “can choose to open the government at any time to fund the Government as the budget allocation to continue the management of the bid.
“Newscum should convince his Democrat pals to stop hurting the American people,” Jackson said, using his favorite expletives about Newsom. “The Trump administration is working around the clock to reduce the painful demos it causes, and even that is annoying on the left, and many hopefuls are criticizing the President’s effort to pay the troops and the children.”
Recupressional Republicans also blame the shutdown and the resulting disruption in Democratic organizations on Democrats, who refused to vote for a funding measure based on Republican decisions to end millions of health care plans.
Newloom’s warning about the benefits of Snap is followed by similar warnings from other sides of the political spectrum, after the US Department of Agriculture warned the parties on Oct.
States must take action to release November benefits before the end of the month, so the shutdown will have to end no later than November 1 for benefits to be available on time.
Newloom’s office said Californians could see their benefits disrupted or delayed if the shutdown doesn’t end Thursday. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services warned that SNAP benefits in November “will not be released if the Federal government shutdown continues through Oct. 27.”
Newloom’s office said the cutoff of funds would affect federally funded Calfresh benefits, but also other federally funded benefits. More than 63% of SNAP recipients in California are children or the elderly, Newloom’s office said.
In her own statement, California First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newlom said, “It has to be measured by how we protect people’s lives, their health and their welfare.”
States have already been preparing for other changes to Snap’s testing based on the Republican-passed “good pay pass,” which places new limits on Snap’s benefits, including for unemployed seniors. Republicans argue that such restrictions would encourage more able-bodied adults to return to the workforce to support their own families.
Many Democrats and activist groups that work to protect families and children have argued that Snap’s restricted benefits have far-reaching consequences for some of the country’s most vulnerable people, including poor children.
According to the USDA, about 41.7 million Americans are provided with Snap benefits per month in FISCAL 2024, at an annual cost of about $100 billion. The USDA has some emergency funds it can use to continue benefits in the short term, but it doesn’t have enough to cover all of the monthly benefits, advocates said.
Andrew Cheyne, Managing Director of Public Policy at the Advocacy Group End Endliforder California, urged that the USDA use its disturbance funds and any other funding channel that would block the benefits of harvesting, which he said is “disastrous.”
“Kalfresh is a way of life for 5.5 million CALIFORNIAS who depend on the food system. That includes 2 million children.
He said the science is clear that “even a short period of food insecurity has long-term effects on children’s growth and development.”
Ted Lempert, President of Kids Now, said the disruption can be “terrifying.”
“We’re talking about the needs of children and families, and children need food – basic support to live and work and go to school,” she said. “So this can really hurt.”
Times Staff Writer Jenny Gold contributed to this report.
