Two Massachusetts lawmakers tore into congressional Republicans on Friday, saying they’d be entirely to blame if food assistance for the poorest and most vulnerable Americans runs out as expected early next month.
But U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, sidestepped any suggestions on Friday that their own party bears the blame for the three-week-old federal government shutdown that’s led to the current crisis.
Funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could run out by Nov. 1 if warring Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill don’t get a deal to reopen the government.
That means some 1.1 million Bay State residents could lose their SNAP benefits. The program was formerly referred to as food stamps.
President Donald Trump and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill have been “dismembering the federal government” since Trump returned to power in January, Markey said during a news conference at Project Bread, a food assistance group, in East Boston.
“So we are standing up to him. We are fighting him. We are not going to stop,” he continued. “Democracy is under assault. He’s an authoritarian dictator. He’s a bully who thinks that he can get his way.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted down a Republican-authored stopgap funding bill that would end the shutdown for the 12th time, Politico reported.
The bill failed on a 54-46 vote, failing to clear the 60-vote threshold needed for approval, which means Democrats were complicit in its defeat.
On Thursday, the majority-Republican chamber similarly rejected a GOP-authored plan to keep paychecks flowing for active-duty members of the military and some government employees until the shutdown is resolved.
The bill once again failed to win the 60 votes needed to advance, which again means Democrats were complicit in its defeat.
Democrats on Capitol Hill have dug in over health care, pushing for the extension of Affordable Care Act tax subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end, and the restoration of Medicaid cuts included in the domestic policy mega-bill that Trump signed into law in July.
The fight over SNAP and the related Women, Infants and Children program has now been pulled into that orbit.
In Massachusetts, 1 in 6 people receive SNAP or WIC benefits. Of the approximately 1.1 million state residents who receive such benefits, one-third are children and one-fourth are seniors over 60. Twenty-eight percent are people with disabilities.
On Friday, Pressley and Markey accused Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill of manufacturing a crisis that easily could be resolved.
While the Senate has debated and held votes, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the lower chamber out of session for weeks.
That’s in part to avoid a swearing-in ceremony for U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who has said she would provide the vote that’s needed that could force the release of the so-called “Epstein Files.”
“Globally, hunger has always been a moral failing, a humanitarian crisis and a policy choice,” Pressley said.
“Our families are now staring down a Nov. 1 cliff when, for the first time in history, an administration could fail to fund the SNAP program,” the Boston lawmaker said.
“Let me say this, I’ve been in Congress [for] seven years. I was the first congressional class to be onboarded in the midst of a federal government shutdown,” she continued.
“We did not leave, we were ever present, negotiating nonstop because that’s what we’re supposed to do on behalf of the people and communities who sent us to Washington,” Pressley concluded. “And yet I have colleagues across the aisle who have been cruel enough to create work requirements around hungry people being able to get food, but they won’t show up for work.”
Food and hunger advocates who attended Friday’s news conference predicted overwhelmed food pantries and food banks if the program is not funded and beneficiaries are cut off from a critical lifeline.
“We can do it. We can end hunger. But right now, we can’t because the federal government doesn’t have our back,” Andrew Morehouse, the executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, said.
Morehouse and other advocates called for Republicans to return to Washington to negotiate with Democrats to end the standoff and for the Trump administration to release contingency funds to keep the money flowing.
The event in East Boston came just after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced that her office will team up with local food banks, Project Break and the United Way to help families, CBS Boston reported.
Healey and the organizations also announced the creation of the United Response Fund to solicit donations, the outlet reported.
In a statement, state House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said the majority-Democrat chamber will do all it can to ease the burden for Bay State residents.
But “the reality is that only President Trump and Congressional Republicans have the ability to end the pain that they are choosing to inflict by reopening the government,” the Quincy lawmaker said.
MassLive Reporter Hadley Barndollar contributed to this story.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
