'Americans are already struggling': New Mexico senators urge feds to continue funding SNAP

New Mexico’s U.S. senators are urging the Department of Agriculture to fund federal food benefits for more than 450,000 New Mexicans as the federal shutdown threatens to halt November’s aid.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., helped lead dozens of Senate colleagues, including Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., in urging the federal agency to “immediately release billions of dollars in available funds” for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to a news release issued Thursday.
The federal government has told states the benefits will run out in November if the shutdown persists.
New Mexico SNAP recipients receive an average of $190 per month from the program, according to the release. The program serves nearly 200,000 kids and 65,000 seniors statewide.
The Democratic senators wrote they were “deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November and were surprised by your recent comments that the program will ‘run out of money in two weeks.’ ”
The agency in fact has “several tools available” to continue funding SNAP through November, the Democrats wrote.
The letter instructs the federal agency to se contingency funding, transfer funds from other programs or “explore all legal means to augment funds” to pay the full amount of benefits.
“Americans are already struggling with the rising cost of groceries, and they cannot afford a sudden lapse in grocery assistance,” the letter states.
During a special session earlier this month, the New Mexico Legislature appropriated supplemental funding to mitigate the looming effects of the federal budget cuts to the SNAP program, but “those funds are unlikely to cover the temporary gap in benefits caused by the shutdown,” the senators state in the news release.
The state needs $81 million a month to fully fund SNAP, according to the statement.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office said Wednesday she “is fully aware and deeply concerned that food security is in grave jeopardy for nearly a half-million New Mexicans who rely on the SNAP program,” spokesperson Michael Colemantold The New Mexican
“This administration is carefully assessing options for those whose benefits could be abruptly cut off on Nov. 1,” he added.
A spokesperson for the USDA wrote in an email Thursday: “We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. Continue to hold out for healthcare for illegals or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.”
The shutdown is over a health care impasse, butnot one related to undocumented immigrants.Senate Democrats have rejected stopgap spending bills until they get a deal to keep in place tax credits for low- and middle-income Americans insured under the Affordable Care Act. Without the tax credits, premiums for enrollees would spike.
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., was among 180 to sign a letter urging the USDA to use contingency reserve funds to issue November benefits. The letter was expected to be released Friday morning.
“How dare you starve Americans when you have $5 billion sitting in the bank?” Leger Fernández said in statement Thursday, referring to USDA contingency funds she said could be used to continue SNAP benefits.
“Families in New Mexico and across rural America shouldn’t have to pay the price for Republican’s chaos,” Leger Fernández continued.
“Trump must feed the people, not starve them for politics,” she added. “Hunger is not a policy tool. It’s a choice, a moral test — and right now, this administration is failing it.”