By Hugh Jackson
One of the most surprising revelations of the SNAP saga is how powerless Republican leaders are.
At least according to them.
When it was suggested last week that the state of Nevada should step in to deliver SNAP benefits if the federal government wasn’t going to, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo said it couldn’t be done because the Trump administration said so.
Lombardo was at least partly right. The Trump administration’s Department of Agriculture has declared states can’t pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits.
Citing selected passages from federal legislation and regulations, the USDA had crafted a rationale not only for not paying SNAP benefits during a shutdown, which is unprecedented. Drawing on a precious reading of dainty rules, the USDA has also decreed that states can’t pay SNAP benefits in the federal government’s stead, or if states do, they won’t be compensated later.
As of Friday morning, USDA websites were continuing to post a blatantly political attack on Senate Democrats while invoking MAGA red meat tropes like “illegal aliens” and “gender mutilation procedures.” So a reasonable person might be excused for suspecting the agency’s order telling states they couldn’t pay for SNAP benefits is not a result of earnest and honest interpretation of the law, but of cherry-picking and misinterpreting it to play MAGA shutdown politics, the well-being of households be damned.
The USDA’s arguments flummoxed a federal judge Thursday, who struggled to get Trump administration lawyers to explain a coherent legal, regulatory, or budgetary justification for failing to put money on households’ SNAP EBT cards during the shutdown. (That judge was one of two federal judges ruling Friday that the administration must make SNAP payments, but it was unclear if the administration will comply.)
In declaring that he is powerless in the face of a memo from a federal agency, Lombardo is not alone. Governors in other states, heeding the Trump administration’s directives, have also determined they can’t fill the void and pay SNAP payments.
Some states, however, are preparing to deliver SNAP benefits directly to their residents’ EBT cards. Why Virginia’s Republican governor can create a program to do that but Nevada’s can’t is a question Lombardo hasn’t answered.
There may be perfectly good reasons; Virginia’s state government infrastructure is larger and more robust than Nevada’s, and Nevada may simply lack the administrative wherewithal to establish an EBT distribution system on the fly.
But whatever the scope of technical or administrative challenges beyond Lombardo’s control, there’s another fact that can’t be ignored: Republicans love to whine about “federal overreach” and “unelected bureaucrats in Washington.”
Lombardo’s no exception. He sends strident letters to the president complaining about all the red tape and regulations that are hindering federal land sales or hurting the economy.
Or at least Lombardo sent strident letters when the president was Biden.
When the heavy hand of the federal government dictates policy to states, Republican governors don’t take it lying down. They challenge the offending policies, even in court.
But Lombardo left that to Nevada’s attorney general, Democrat Aaron Ford.
Instead of blasting federal overreach from unelected Washington bureaucrats, Lombardo responded to the USDA’s memo meekly, saying “even if I called a special convening of the Legislature and the Legislature opted to appropriate temporary SNAP funding, the State would not be able to directly fund the program.” Because the Trump administration said so.
Rep. Mark Amodei, the only Nevada Republican in Congress, has similarly exhibited powerlessness in a crisis. Even though his party controls the White House, both houses of Congress, and the United States Supreme Court, there is simply nothing Republicans can do to prevent the end of SNAP benefits, according to Amodei.
“There is no mystery that, despite some commendable efforts from private individuals and the administration to delay the realities of government shutdowns, everyone knows when SNAP benefits run dry and programs start shutting down,” Amodei said in a (syntactically compromised) press release this week.
“Everyone knows,” congressman?
SNAP benefits have not “run dry.” The reserve fund has $6 billion. And to reiterate, ending SNAP benefits is unprecedented during a government shutdown.
But Amodei’s right when he says “there is no mystery” about why SNAP benefits are scheduled to end Nov. 1.
It’s the result of a choice made by the Trump administration.
Trump has spent the last nine months aggressively flaunting laws enacted by Congress, and gloating about it. He’s reduced Amodei and the Republicans who hold majorities in both houses of Congress to irrelevance, mere nodding bobblehead dolls.
But now Trump and his White House are claiming they are powerless to continue paying SNAP benefits during the shutdown. A man who is eager to defy and willing to shred the U.S. Constitution now asks everyone to believe he is constrained by some regulatory fine print — fine print that the administration itself fished out to willfully misinterpret.
“Republicans and Democrats have to work together” is a mantra being chanted from coast to coast, often accompanied by assigning blame to both sides.
But when it comes to the argument over providing food assistance to needy households, there’s a big difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Democrats have argued the USDA’s decision is wrong, and sued over it. They’ve pleaded with the Trump administration and the courts in an effort to see that SNAP benefits are not interrupted.
But the only thing Democrats have the power to do is unconditionally surrender to Republicans in the shutdown fight, and then hope that Trump and Republicans will graciously agree to negotiate with Democrats to shore up a health insurance program Republicans have spent the last 15 years vowing to repeal.
On the specific issue of continuing SNAP funding, Democrats are powerless.
Trump isn’t. He could assure benefits will continue to be distributed to EBT cards in Nevada and the nation with a single post on social media ordering USDA to make it so.
Democrats don’t have any power. Trump does. But instead of using it to help people, Trump’s wielding his power to deprive families of food, because he thinks hurting them will hurt Democrats. Republican officials in Nevada are going along with the fiction that the SNAP crisis is the result of Democratic defiance, while ignoring the fact that it is a deliberate choice sanctioned by their dear Republican leader.
The commentary was updated to note Friday’s rulings from a pair of federal judges.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected].
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Republished with permission from Nevada Current
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