Democrats Win Case to Feed American Families: Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell on SNAP Ruling

[Celerity]

"This has never happened in the history of the program."

Last week, twenty four Democratic attorney generals, plus three governors subbing for their Republican AGs, successfully sued the Trump Administration over their withholding of emergency SNAP funding. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, from Massachusetts, was one of the leading AGs to take Trump to task and fight for Americans regardless of party or geography.

AG Campbell sits with Jen to divulge what motivated the lawsuit, what it means that the judge sided with the pro-SNAP legal team, and how the states are responding to Trump only partially funding the SNAP program through November.

Andrea Campbell is the 45th attorney general of Massachusetts. She previously served on the Boston City Council from 2016 to 2022 and was council president from 2018 to 2020. She received her JD from the UCLA School of Law.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Maddowblog-In response to court ruling, Trump administration to partially fund SNAP -- for now

The good news for those receiving federal food aid is that there will apparently be some relief. The bad news is it will be temporary and meager.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/response-court-ruling-trump-administration-partially-fund-snap-now-rcna241632

The longest government shutdown in American history, which spanned 35 days, began almost seven years ago, at roughly the

midpoint of Donald Trump’s first term. As is always the case, the shutdown was a multifaceted mess at the time, but in late 2018 and early 2019, the Republican president continued to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

As the ongoing government shutdown continues and policymakers prepare to break the record for the nation’s longest shutdown, low-income families have confronted an additional hardship: The White House balked at keeping federal food aid going during the political standoff, despite apparent legal requirements.....

As for the related legal fight, it was inevitable that the Republican administration’s decision to withhold food aid would lead to litigation — and the White House’s move did end up in court. It’s against this backdrop that NBC News reported:

The Trump administration said in court filings Monday that it would use contingency funds to provide partial SNAP benefits in November after a judge on Friday ordered the Department of Agriculture to disburse funding for the program. The administration said that it would use all $4.65 billion in contingency funds, which will cover about half of each eligible household’s benefits this month.

For struggling families facing scary conditions, the good news is that there will apparently be some relief, though there may be some logistical challenges in reopening the spigot that was closed over the weekend.

The bad news is that the relief will be temporary and meager: SNAP benefits were already modest (roughly 1 in 8 people get an average of $187 a month per person in SNAP), and “partial” payments means additional hardships.

As a New York Times report noted, this means “many low-income families could once again be in dire straits in a matter of days or weeks.” Watch this space.