Cassidy co-sponsors bill that would reinstate SNAP benefits

WASHINGTON (KLFY) — Senate Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), have introduced legislation that would reinstate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the government shutdown.

Cassidy joins Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Katie Boyd Britt (R-Ala.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Jon Husted (R-Ohio) in pushing a U.S. Senate vote on the Keep

SNAP Funded Act.

The bill is the companion to a SNAP funding bill in the House introduced by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) on Friday.

The Keep SNAP Funded Act would ensure full funding for the SNAP program during the government shutdown. Under the bill, Congress would appropriate the necessary funding to provide uninterrupted SNAP benefits, retroactive to the start of the shutdown, according to Cassidy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a memo Friday it won’t use the SNAP contingency funding, which Congress has allocated for emergency scenarios. The memo contradicts the since-deleted shutdown plan prepared by the USDA earlier in the year, which said the department is legally obligated to pay SNAP benefits in the event of a shutdown. 

“We’re stepping up to make sure families can still put food on the table,” Cassidy said.

This legislation also provides a path for states to get reimbursed by the federal government for any funds used to keep the program going during the government shutdown.

One of those states could be Louisiana, which is considering funding SNAP benefits at the state level via the Revenue Stabilization Fund. A resolution that would allow the Louisiana Department of Health secretary to use the fund was approved in the House on Friday and now heads to the Senate.

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