Don't fall for the okey-doke on SNAP contingency funds; not from the Trump regime, nor from their media data mules*
...here's our generic local reporter casting the blame on our Dem governor, playing the Trump administration's game of okey-doke trying to force STATES to use their contingency funds instead of the FEDERAL money Democrats provided for sitiuations like this:
Pamela Wood @pwoodreporter
Maryland’s state government has $3.5 billion sitting in fully liquid cash.
Gov. Wes Moore says he won’t use any of it to keep SNAP food benefits going once federal funding dries up — unless the feds will guarantee repayment.
here's the reality:
James E. Clyburn @RepJamesClyburn
The Trump Administration is claiming they don’t have SNAP funding for next month.
That’s not true. SNAP has a contingency fund that could last well into November.
If Americans don’t get their SNAP benefits, it will be because the Trump Administration decided to stop them.
...it is, of course, the deliberate intention of this Trump regime to steal the money in the federal coffers meant for hungry children and others throughout the nation and shift their own mandated burden onto states; even as food prices are increasing as a result of the Trump tariffs and health insurance rates are set to double because of deliberate republican inaction; even as they're tearing down a national monument to make way for a corporate donor-built/taxpayer-funded cafeteria for the politically connected and the moneyed elite.
from New Republic:
The USDA published a memo in August claiming that SNAP contingency funds could not legally be used to cover regular benefits for the 42 million Americans that use them, and that any states trying to cover the cost would not be reimbursed.
“SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover benefits,” the memo stated. “The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists.”
Now the funds could solely be used for so-called contingencies, such as natural disasters, USDA claimed. “For example, Hurricane Melissa is currently swirling in the Caribbean and could reach Florida,” the memo stated. “Having funds readily available allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to mobilize quickly in the days and weeks following a disaster.”
But the USDA’s Lapse of Funding Plan, published a month later and which Axios reported has been removed from the agency’s website, stated just the opposite:
“OMB’s General Counsel provided a letter to USDA on May 23, 2025 stating that there is a bona fide need to obligate benefits for October—the first month of the fiscal year—during or prior to the month of September, thereby guaranteeing that benefit funds are available for program operations even in the event of a government shutdown at the beginning of a fiscal year.” the disappeared document states.
“In addition, Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown. These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”
The memo also claimed that using the contingency funds would prevent additional transfers to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, which has reportedly been funded using Trump’s tariff money during the shutdown.
https://newrepublic.com/post/202286/donald-trump-democrats-shutdown-snap-funding
...don't fall for the okey-doke, not from the administration, nor from media which obligingly behaves as this regime's obsequious mouthpiece.
*data mule is a term I picked up from Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel)
= new reply since forum marked as read
