By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
CHICOPEE – The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts worked Monday afternoon to obtain and distribute enough food to get needy households through a November in which SNAP benefits remain uncertain.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal called during a visit to the program for Republicans in Congress to work to end the Washington stalemate endangering $35 million a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits that Western Massachusetts households expect each month.
“Let’s turn the lights on and get back to work,” Neal, D-Springfield, said on a visit to the Food Bank’s warehouse distribution center in Chicopee. “We’re not looking for surrender. We want an honest negotiation. And we can’t accept the one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits because what will happen is we’ll be right back to where we are now in a year after the elections.”
Democrats in Congress have made the preservation of those tax credits, which are scheduled to end, the center of their opposition to agreeing to a budget to end the government shutdown.
Even though there is substantial disagreement, the two parties can find a path forward, Neal said.
“We’ve got SNAP benefits, we’ve got the ACA, we’ve still got the appropriation bills for the country that have to be done,” he said.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration signaled it would comply with a federal court ruling and use a $6 billion contingency account to fund SNAP. But then Monday the administration announced it would tap only $4.65 billion — enough to cover about half the normal benefits across the country.
“My sense is that it’s a part of their negotiation. I don’t think that the answer is satisfactory, but I think that it’s part of the negotiation,” said Neal, the ranking Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee.
Andrew Morehouse, executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, said half the funding won’t cut it. The program needs to be fully funded and benefits need to get out to people who need them.
“People don’t eat retroactively,” he said. “People eat every day.”
Across Neal’s district, 191,000 residents in 74,000 households rely on SNAP to put food on the table. Of these 74,000 households, nearly 40% have a child, 42% have an elderly person and 57% have an individual with a disability.
More than half the households receiving SNAP benefits have an individual who is working.
“That’s why it’s called ‘supplemental’ support, because it supplements the rest of their income,” Neal said.
Neal also reminds people that spending — the power of the purse – is Congress’ responsibility. It is not the sole decision of President Donald Trump.
“The president has demonstrated disregard for the Constitution in many of these instances as he has moved money around in the federal budget,” Neal said. “But it can’t be just what the president likes. That’s not our constitutional system.”
Neal said one day there’ll be a Democrat in the White House again.
“And all these precedents that have been established, if a Democratic president embraces them, I dare say there’s going to be more to quibble with on the Republican side,” Neal said.
