Governor Janet Mills today applauded two Federal court rulings to compel the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release emergency contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Earlier this week, Attorney General Aaron Frey announced that Maine had joined a muti-state lawsuit to compel USDA to release contingency funds.

Federal judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ruled in two cases against the USDA to prevent the withholding of SNAP contingency funding, saying the Federal government is required to sustain benefits as the Federal shutdown continues.

Governor Mills released the following statement:

"I welcome and applaud these decisions by the Courts and thank Attorney General Aaron Frey for his efforts on behalf of our state. As has been clear, the USDA can and should distribute contingency funds authorized by Congress to avoid the disastrous harm that stopping SNAP benefits would create for Maine families, children, and seniors. Withholding this contingency funding was a wrong and callous decision by the USDA to begin with. I strongly urge the President and USDA to comply with these rulings and immediately release SNAP emergency funds to ensure thousands of Maine people -- and millions more across the country -- don't go hungry in November."

On October 10, the USDA informed states that benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will not be distributed in November due to the Federal shutdown. On October 24, the USDA issued a memo claiming it could not legally use SNAP contingency funds to cover regular benefits.

Each month, some $29 million in Federal funding for SNAP is provided to 170,000 Maine people, with the average family of four receiving $572. Nearly 12.5 percent of the state's population rely on SNAP, with several counties -- Androscoggin, Aroostook, Washington, Piscataquis, and Somerset -- approaching or surpassing 20 percent of their populations. Nearly 75 percent of Maine's SNAP households include at least one working adult, more than half include a person with a disability, 43 percent include an older adult, and over one-third include children.

On Wednesday, Governor Mills announced that she is taking action to deliver $1.25 million to Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine's Area Agencies on Aging, and other anti-hunger programs in Maine as the Federal shutdown continues, in partnership with the John T. Gorman Foundation.

In a letter to the President this week, Governor Mills and 20 other governors detailed the impact of ending these benefits on people across the nation and urged him to direct the Department to release SNAP contingency funds immediately.