Nearly 600,000 Kentuckians rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to put food on their tables.
Amid the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration has ordered the federal government not to pay out SNAP benefits for November, and Beshear says states are prohibited from paying vendors.
The governor said the money is there to ensure Americans don’t go hungry. The USDA can tap into more than $23 billion in Section 32 funds, which are currently being utilized to cover WIC funding.
“Emergency funds (are) sitting around that the president could use to fund the SNAP program; all he has to do is be willing to do it,” Beshear said.
The coalition on the lawsuit is the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. The Governors of Kansas and Pennsylvania also joined.
Kentucky's Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman responded by joining 18 other Republican state attorneys general in signing a letter to Sen. Schumer, requesting that Democrats pass the continuing resolution to reopen the government, which they say would, in turn, keep SNAP funded.
One in eight Kentuckians utilizes SNAP benefits.
