Local and federal officials trade blame and solutions in Saturday SNAP cut off

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Millions of Americans will be hit by one of the larger impacts of the government shutdown tomorrow, as SNAP benefits will not be paid out.

42 million Americans, including 140,000 Rhode Islanders and one million Massachusetts residents, will be affected by the Saturday cut off.

Local governments and charities are bracing for the effects of the pause in the benefit payouts.

“When you think about SNAP going away, that’s a $29 million hit to the state every single month,” said Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Melissa Cherney.

“So that’s a million dollar hit to the state every single day. So that’s a million dollars a day that’s not coming in in SNAP benefits and there’s no way we can food bank our way out of it.”

Local lawmakers are pointing toward the White House with their responses.

“President Trump has chosen to stop all SNAP benefits to Americans starting next week. And a leadership is a choice. And sadly President Trump has chosen to take away food from people all around this country,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.

Healey announced Thursday that she would be releasing $4 million in emergency funds to go toward families in need.

The money will come from the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program and go to Bay State food banks.

Longer than usual lines are expected to form outside of those organizations.

In Washington, Trump is calling on the Senate to drop the filibuster by simple majority to reopen the government.

Other branches of government have been asked to step in on the situation, with a federal judge in Massachusetts weighing whether to push the White House to release contingency funds to pay for SNAP.

More than 20 governors and attorneys general have sued the Trump administration to try and blunt the impact of the cut.

This includes officials from Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

A ruling could come Friday from District Judge Indira Talwani, who appeared to be siding with the coalition of state leaders in the matter on Thursday.

She called the shutdown an emergency, and stated that the $5 billion fund is set aside for such situations.

Federal government lawyers said that the money would not cover everyone while the states argued that partial payments are better than none.