Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon declared a public welfare emergency Friday ahead of SNAP benefits lapsing Saturday amid the federal government shutdown.
“When people can’t eat, and we’ve got dozens of people being turned away at food banks, and trying to find ways to feed themselves, I would qualify that as an emergency,” Gordon said during a press conference.
Over 26,000 residents rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to buy groceries. But while the federal government is closed, the program will go unfunded, leaving thousands of Wyomingites, mostly children, at risk.
The executive order issued Friday enables the governor’s office to send discretionary emergency funds to charitable organizations and churches to provide food via food banks and pantries.
State law grants the governor the authority to spend up to $10 million from the legislative stabilization reserve account, also known as the rainy day fund, in the event of a public welfare emergency.
SNAP benefits are distributed by the Wyoming Department of Family Services on a monthly basis to a reloadable EBT card, which functions like a debit card, for buying eligible food items.
The state, however, is unable to move emergency funds to those cards “because we do not have a direct agreement with our provider who does the EBT transfers,” DFS Director Korin Schmidt told reporters.
“So in the absence of that, we had to come up with a different methodology, which is to distribute the food or distribute dollars to food pantries, food banks so that they can purchase and provide food directly to our neighbors,” she said.
As outlined in the executive order, DFS will provide grant agreements to those organizations “receiving funds and direct that they use reasonable efforts to purchase nutritional, healthy food with the distributed funds.”
Gordon said officials anticipate spending about $1.4 million a week.
“And may I add, this is not intended to supplant the excellent work that’s already being done by volunteers, churches and others all around the state,” Gordon said. “This is an adjunct to it, and we are trying to work as closely as we can to make sure that the needs are met.”
Meanwhile, Gordon signed an additional executive order Friday aligned with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” executive order, which directs DFS to begin the process of submitting a waiver request to further restrict what can be purchased with SNAP dollars. It targets foods such as candy and soda.
Earlier this month, the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Committee voted to adopt similar legislation. That measure must still pass the full Legislature, which convenes in February.
This is a breaking news story and may be updated.
States should be 100% responsible for the welfare-state of their citizens. The federal government should only focus on national and economic security that the feds can address in a more comprehensive manner.
And really, the feds are trillions in debt but Wyoming has billions in “rainy day” funds. Too many are on the federal dole as it is
It’s far past time for states to pay their own way and tax their own citizens to take care of their own citizens for basic things like food assistance.
Let’s remember that the State of Wyoming used to brag about its low wages to outside business interests thinking of relocating here. And many other states brag about killing off unions and lower labor costs. These things have a direct impact on people’s ability to afford food, healthcare, housing, retirement, etc.
Own your own mess.
Wyomingites are well-versed in right-wing propaganda. Blame the poor. They are all lazy and “on the dole.”
In 2017, Republicans re-write the tax code. Now income from capital gains is taxed at a far lower rate than income from labor. That’s not fair! Capital gains are not taxed until assets are sold, but asset holders can borrow money against their assets. People who have a lot of money can multiply it with ease, then die and leave it to their children, who have never had to work a day in their pampered lives, tax free. People who work for a living are on a treadmill, one bad illness away from losing everything.
For the past 50 years, wages have not kept up with inflation. Not even close. On the other hand, the top 1% has seen their wealth explode. Lawmaking has been turned over to wealthy interests, and with every session of Congress, the biggest corporations and the wealthiest individuals benefit from some new tax break or de-regulation. When some of the wealthiest individuals pay $0 taxes, but someone who gets up and goes to work every day has to pay 20%, something is broken.
When the largest corporations gobble up all the competition without any pushback from the government, when they use their year-after-year record profits to buyback their own stocks, artificially inflating their own stock prices, and when they pay their CEO’s tens of millions of dollars, while their entry-level workers qualify for SNAP benefits, what we have is corporate welfare.
SNAP should be a very small program, for people who temporarily fall on hard times due to circumstances beyond their control. If working for a living paid a fair wage, people could dig themselves out and build some personal wealth.
Thank you, Governor, for your concern and compassion for our fellow Wyoming citizens who are not as fortunate as we are.
So, our Governor declares an emergency, and our President plays golf.
And Schumer is comfy.
Good for Governor Gordon. In my opinion ebt should be a state program.
Good for Gov. Gordon…