Despite bipartisan lawmakers’ urging, Lee declines to bridge SNAP freeze with state dollars

Volunteers of Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville prepared food for seniors affected by a freeze in SNAP benefits beginning Saturday. (Photo:John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

With the looming prospect of federal food aid disappearing for nearly 1 in 10 Tennesseans starting Saturday, state Democratic lawmakers – and at least one Republican – have urged Gov. Bill Lee to follow the example of other state governors in taking action. 

Lee, who’s out of state this week on an economic trip to Asia, has thus far declined to tap state resources to help mitigate the loss of more than $145 million in monthly food aid intended for the state’s poorest residents – among them more than 300,000 children living in poverty. 

Instead, Lee, a Republican, blamed Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown that has frozen the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a federally funded program that loads about $340 a month onto a debit card for a family of four to use at the grocery store.

“Their failure to fund federal nutrition programs cannot be solved by states, and the void cannot be filled with temporary fixes that would only drain state resources and prolong the misery of this shutdown,” Lee said in a statement.

Lee announced Thursday he had set up a website, www.feedtn.org, to connect Tennesseans in need of food with local pantries. 

A high percentage of rural Tennesseans use SNAP, as funding set to dry up

At least 24 other states, however, have found ways to tap into funding to bridge the loss of November SNAP benefits. 

In Louisiana, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry announced he would direct $150 million from the state’s health department budget to aid SNAP recipients. In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said $30 million in state-funded food benefits will be loaded onto existing SNAP debit cards to help New Mexicans buy food through Nov. 10. 

A coalition of 25 Democrat-led states also sued the federal government seeking an emergency court order to restore federal SNAP funding before it runs out on Nov. 1. A Massachusetts federal judge said she would soon rule on their emergency request to force the Trump administration to tap contingency funds to provide November SNAP benefits.

The Trump administration has warned states they will not be reimbursed for using funding to aid SNAP recipients during the government shutdown.

Tennessee lawmakers urge Lee to act

The Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus on Thursday sent a letter to Lee urging the governor to declare a state of emergency to coordinate hunger relief in the state. 

“Under a state of emergency, your administration would be empowered to utilize all available state resources, direct emergency funds, expand local food assistance, and bolster the capacity of food banks and faith-based groups already doing God’s work in our communities,” the Democrats wrote.

Republican Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta, on Thursday, urged Lee “to find a way to protect Tennessee families from losing access to essential food assistance benefits.”

“We can’t wait on the federal government to act,” Bailey said in a statement. “Tennessee should take the lead in meeting this challenge. Let’s show the rest of the country what it looks like when leaders put people before politics and compassion before bureaucracy.”

Tennessee currently has more than $2 billion in its state rainy day fund that could be tapped, Democratic lawmakers noted. 

Tennessee governor warns of SNAP lapse, blames Democrats for shutdown

SNAP is funded by the federal government and administered by the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which contracts with an outside vendor to electronically load SNAP cash benefits onto debit cards families use at the grocery store.

On Thursday, Department of Human Services Commissioner Clarence Carter told lawmakers in a House committee hearing that, even if state funding were made available, the vendor the state relies on to distribute SNAP dollars to 690,000 Tennesseans has no mechanism to tap state funds.

The vendor is only able to access a federal line of credit to refill the SNAP debit cards, he said. 

“We don’t have the ability to recreate that mechanism overnight,” he said. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services did not respond to questions about the SNAP distribution system. 

Vermont, which operates a similar system to distribute federal SNAP aid, announced Wednesday it would reprogram its debit card system to distribute more than $6 million in funding to its residents.