By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel held a roundtable with advocacy leaders on Tuesday to discuss the uncertainty which surrounded Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits throughout the federal shutdown.
While SNAP benefits have been restored and Michigan directed its vendor to issue full payments for November, community activists are still worried about continuous legal fights from President Donald Trump and his administration, possible plans to require all participants to reapply for benefits, expanding work requirements and overall food insecurity.
Terrell Couch, coalitions director for Mothering Justice, said one of the mothers he works with has felt this weight of uncertainty in the past few months, with school lunches in the air during the possibility of a statewide shutdown and then a pause in SNAP benefits.
“(She was) seeing all of these intersections and all of these impacts that can happen that in the blink of an eye, a mama who’s doing everything she can to ensure she’s going to work to bring food home for her child,” Couch said.
Jen Schaap, food and farming program director for Groundwork Center, also said Michigan budget negotiations exacerbated the food insecurity alongside SNAP uncertainty, like the defunding of the 10 Cents a Meal program in the recent budget, which put Michigan produce in school meals. She said that was a $7 million loss for farmers supplying the program.
Cindy Gamboa, executive director of MI Poder, a nonprofit for the Latino population of the state, said unpredictability surrounding SNAP is also tied to the overall fear in the immigrant population of retribution or attacks for using these benefits and could lead to legal permanent residents unenrolling in any resource, including SNAP.
However, Nessel said, that even though people are disenrolling now, personal information stays in the system for five years. Although being a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident is a requirement to receive SNAP benefits, meaning the program does not serve individuals in the country without documentation, the recent crackdown on immigration enforcement by the Trump administration has led to arrests and detainment of green card holders and some U.S. citizens by mistake. That’s led to increased cautiousness even among those who’ve immigrated to the U.S. and secured legal residency.
These decisions to unenroll follow Trump’s move to collect SNAP beneficiary personal data from states, which Nessel litigated, receiving a block on the federal government’s threats to withhold federal SNAP funding unless they handed over this data.
With this block, Nessel said she feels because the federal government has not appealed immediately, it is “a positive sign” and that the court’s ruling in the preliminary injunction was strong in that the states have their own data and security protocols.
While SNAP benefits have been released, Neil Giovanatti, assistant attorney general, said they are still assessing the ongoing lawsuit on SNAP because it also includes the protection for the state related to error rates in the system.
A House panel recently took testimony from the Department of Health and Human Services on its plan to decrease these rates in the face of Trump looking to impose benefit costs based on the rate of errors.
The federal government has also rolled out plans to decrease their share in administrative costs.
Giovanatti said states are concerned about their ability to pay for operations, so the case will “likely proceed to address” that.
He said the department takes the issues very seriously, and that many times “the barrage of actions” for the USDA may “appear to be intentionally designed to force states to have high error rates.”
While every system can get better, Giovanatti said, the department cannot “miraculously deal” with every single thing that’s coming at them to cause the error rate to increase.” One of his examples was guidance in eligibility rules for noncitizens that the department may take months to implement when the USDA said it was effective immediately.
Nessel said the department is being asked to do “mathematical gymnastics” with information from the Trump administration that is either confusing or incorrect information.
Nessel said the DHHS did a “tremendous job for what they were dealing with,” having to follow along with all the appeals and different court decisions and comply with the uncertainties in the rulings.
Overall, Nessel has filed 37 federal actions against Trump and his administration since January, receiving 19 injunctions.
Nessel said she has not seen “100% compliance” with these cases, specifically with Federal Emergency Management Agency grants, where after receiving a positive court ruling, the states have to file several motions to enforce over $100 million that was owed to the state.
She said while an agency may not immediately cooperate, they usually eventually do, but there have been a lot of cases of “slow walking.” Nessel also said a lawsuit is being discussed on the plan floated by the federal government to have everyone reapply for SNAP benefits.
Gongwer News Service
Attorney General Dana Nessel held a roundtable with advocacy leaders on Tuesday to discuss the uncertainty which surrounded Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits throughout the federal shutdown.
While SNAP benefits have been restored and Michigan directed its vendor to issue full payments for November, community activists are still worried about continuous legal fights from President Donald Trump and his administration, possible plans to require all participants to reapply for benefits, expanding work requirements and overall food insecurity.
Terrell Couch, coalitions director for Mothering Justice, said one of the mothers he works with has felt this weight of uncertainty in the past few months, with school lunches in the air during the possibility of a statewide shutdown and then a pause in SNAP benefits.
“(She was) seeing all of these intersections and all of these impacts that can happen that in the blink of an eye, a mama who’s doing everything she can to ensure she’s going to work to bring food home for her child,” Couch said.
Jen Schaap, food and farming program director for Groundwork Center, also said Michigan budget negotiations exacerbated the food insecurity alongside SNAP uncertainty, like the defunding of the 10 Cents a Meal program in the recent budget, which put Michigan produce in school meals. She said that was a $7 million loss for farmers supplying the program.
Cindy Gamboa, executive director of MI Poder, a nonprofit for the Latino population of the state, said unpredictability surrounding SNAP is also tied to the overall fear in the immigrant population of retribution or attacks for using these benefits and could lead to legal permanent residents unenrolling in any resource, including SNAP.
However, Nessel said, that even though people are disenrolling now, personal information stays in the system for five years. Although being a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident is a requirement to receive SNAP benefits, meaning the program does not serve individuals in the country without documentation, the recent crackdown on immigration enforcement by the Trump administration has led to arrests and detainment of green card holders and some U.S. citizens by mistake. That’s led to increased cautiousness even among those who’ve immigrated to the U.S. and secured legal residency.
These decisions to unenroll follow Trump’s move to collect SNAP beneficiary personal data from states, which Nessel litigated, receiving a block on the federal government’s threats to withhold federal SNAP funding unless they handed over this data.
With this block, Nessel said she feels because the federal government has not appealed immediately, it is “a positive sign” and that the court’s ruling in the preliminary injunction was strong in that the states have their own data and security protocols.
While SNAP benefits have been released, Neil Giovanatti, assistant attorney general, said they are still assessing the ongoing lawsuit on SNAP because it also includes the protection for the state related to error rates in the system.
A House panel recently took testimony from the Department of Health and Human Services on its plan to decrease these rates in the face of Trump looking to impose benefit costs based on the rate of errors.
The federal government has also rolled out plans to decrease their share in administrative costs.
Giovanatti said states are concerned about their ability to pay for operations, so the case will “likely proceed to address” that.
He said the department takes the issues very seriously, and that many times “the barrage of actions” for the USDA may “appear to be intentionally designed to force states to have high error rates.”
While every system can get better, Giovanatti said, the department cannot “miraculously deal” with every single thing that’s coming at them to cause the error rate to increase.” One of his examples was guidance in eligibility rules for noncitizens that the department may take months to implement when the USDA said it was effective immediately.
Nessel said the department is being asked to do “mathematical gymnastics” with information from the Trump administration that is either confusing or incorrect information.
Nessel said the DHHS did a “tremendous job for what they were dealing with,” having to follow along with all the appeals and different court decisions and comply with the uncertainties in the rulings.
Overall, Nessel has filed 37 federal actions against Trump and his administration since January, receiving 19 injunctions.
Nessel said she has not seen “100% compliance” with these cases, specifically with Federal Emergency Management Agency grants, where after receiving a positive court ruling, the states have to file several motions to enforce over $100 million that was owed to the state.
She said while an agency may not immediately cooperate, they usually eventually do, but there have been a lot of cases of “slow walking.” Nessel also said a lawsuit is being discussed on the plan floated by the federal government to have everyone reapply for SNAP benefits.
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