NM Dems plan to extend SNAP funding

With the Trump Administration using food for low-income Americans as a political weapon, Democratic Party leaders in N.M. state government are again standing in the gap.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday that she’s calling another special legislative session to ensure New Mexicans have access to food benefits. The move comes as the Trump Administration is withholding some food assistance to pressure Democrats in the U.S. Senate to vote to reopen the government without any compromises or concessions from the GOP.

Days ago, the governor released $30 million in emergency state funds she controlled to plug the hole in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). That money will run out Monday, and further funding requires legislative approval.

So the Legislature will meet Monday for a session the governor expects to last one day.

It will be the second special session in recent weeks. Lawmakers met in October to fill other holes created by Republican-driven federal cuts. That included providing nearly $30 million in food assistance for New Mexicans and $17 million to continue subsidies the federal government is no longer providing to help with folks’ health-care premiums.

“We acted fast in October when the Trump Administration abandoned New Mexican families, and now the Legislature is coming back to finish the job,” Lujan Grisham said in a news release announcing next week’s session.

Democratic legislative leaders are on board.

“No New Mexican should go hungry because of inaction and uncertainty in Washington, D.C.,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth of Santa Fe said in the news release. “Senate Democrats fully support Gov. Lujan Grisham’s decision to call this special session.”

House Speaker Javier Martínez of Albuquerque agreed.

“We are not letting New Mexican families go hungry because the Trump administration doesn’t want to fulfill their legal and moral obligation to fully fund the SNAP benefits that children, seniors and veterans across our state rely on,”  he said.

‘This should never happen in America’

N.M. Republicans responded by blaming the state’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján. State Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer of Farmington accused them of “forcing state lawmakers to have to shoulder the cost so that vulnerable New Mexicans can put food on their tables for the holidays,” and “holding the hard-working people of New Mexico hostage as political pawns for their partisan theatrics.”

But it is difficult to fathom that Sharer believes his own statement. The Trump Administration has emergency money it can spend to fund SNAP during the ongoing federal government shutdown, as past presidents from both parties have done.

Instead of ensuring that people are fed, President Donald Trump’s team is fighting in court for the right to withhold the money.

A federal judge ordered the Trump Administration on Thursday to release the SNAP funds to states by Friday. Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island accused Trump of delaying the funding “for political reasons,” according to The New York Times.

Trump isn’t hiding that fact. He said on social media earlier this week that SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government.”

McConnell took issue with that. With food assistance for 42 million Americans at risk, he said, “This should never happen in America,” according to The Times.

The Trump Administration said it would appeal the judge’s ruling. And a Lujan Grisham spokeswoman told me Monday’s special session will proceed regardless of what happens next in the federal case.

Lujan Grisham pointed to New Mexico’s strong financial position, saying the state is fortunate to be able “to support New Mexicans in this time of need.” But the state doesn’t have the money to do that indefinitely.

“Republicans in Congress need to come back to the table to end the longest government shutdown in American history and get everyone back to work,” the governor said.

Lujan Grisham is currently attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Brazil. In her absence, Lt. Gov. Howie Morales will serve as acting governor during the special session.

The Legislature will convene at noon Monday at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.

Disclosure: This reporter is married to state Rep. Sarah Silva, D-Las Cruces.