BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey says food aid is flowing to more than 1.1 million SNAP recipients in the state, but criticized the bipartisan plan in Congress to reopen the government without a guarantee to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Healey said she stands behind her decision to begin distributing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits even as a court challenge over the funding plays out and the Trump administration threatens to punish states for distributing the money ahead of a final ruling.
“I think the law is very clear, and multiple courts have already ruled on this issue,” Healey, a Democrat and former attorney general, said. “The president may have made a choice to starve Americans, but I’m not going to let that happen here. We’re going to continue to make sure that people get their SNAP benefits.”
A series of seesaw federal rulings over the past week have left more than 42 million Americans who rely on the nation’s largest anti-hunger program with whiplash and states scrambling to figure out how to fill the gaps in food aid.
The USDA froze federal funding for SNAP beginning Nov. 1 in response to the government shutdown that began last month amid a partisan impasse over a temporary spending bill in Congress. It’s the first time that’s happened since the program began six decades ago.
Healey on Friday directed the state Department of Transitional Assistance to begin distributing full SNAP benefits Saturday in anticipation that money would be available after a federal court judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to pay out the benefits.
An appeals court declined to take up the last-minute move by the Trump administration to block the order, but the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Late Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily halted the lower court’s order. The delay is meant to give the appeals court more time to weigh the legal arguments raised by the government.
That led the Department of Agriculture on Saturday to write state SNAP directors to warn them it now considers payments by Massachusetts, New York and other states under the court orders “unauthorized” and threatened to claw back the money.
“How cruel is it that in the face of so many clear court decisions, the president and his administration would attempt to appeal this?” Healey said Monday. “It’s unbelievable.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell co-led a group of 22 other Democrats that filed a petition seeking to block the Trump administration from clawing back SNAP benefits that were authorized in response to a recent federal court order. On Monday, a federal judge ordered a temporary block of the directive to “undo” the SNAP payments.
Healey also told reporters said she is “glad” the Senate began taking steps Sunday to approve a temporary spending bill aimed at reopening the federal government, but is “distressed and concerned” that that measure was approved without a concrete agreement to extend expiring Obamacare credits, a key demand of Democrats.
More than 330,000 Massachusetts residents who get their health insurance through the federal exchange are getting notices this week about their premiums doubling — in some cases tripling — next year because the tax credits are expiring, she said. Healey said the state can’t afford to fill the gap created by the expiring credits.
“What needs to happen now is Republicans and the president need to get back together in Congress and work through a vote to make sure that these tax credits are extended,” she said. “They need to act immediately to prevent skyrocketing health care costs.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.