Trump, Republicans Use Hunger as Bargaining Chip, Democratic Leaders Fight Back

NEVADA - Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford was among 22 states that sued the Trump Administration Tuesday over threats to end funding to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of the government shutdown later this week. SNAP funding is set to lapse on Nov. 1, absent a new funding deal. However, the US Department of Agriculture has contingency funding it could use to continue funding SNAP, the lawsuit argues, and has actively chosen to end food assistance it is legally obligated to provide.

Shelbie Swartz, Executive Director of Battle Born Progress, issued the following statement:

“It has been clear from the jump that the Trump Administration would rather use pain and hunger for politics than sit down and negotiate an end to this MAGA shutdown, and we thank Attorney General Ford and every state Attorney General that is taking this administration to court. Over dozens of funding lapses and multiple shutdowns, the federal government has never once failed to fund SNAP. That the Trump White House and the USDA would even contemplate doing it now is a naked attempt to use the hunger of our neighbors as a bargaining chip in the fight to preserve massive tax breaks for billionaires. Bowing to that pressure, as the Lombardo Administration has done time and again, is not leadership, it is cowardice.”

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