Some 850,000 Virginians who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to feed themselves and their families faced a desperate situation as money for that modest monthly assistance was set to end on Saturday amid the ongoing federal shutdown.
Thanks to a record budget surplus, however, the commonwealth will stand up a program to provide those benefits on a weekly basis for at least a few weeks. That extends a welcome lifeline to anxious families, but does not alleviate the need for Congress to broker a deal and reopen the government as soon as possible.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced last week that he would take the “extraordinary action” of declaring a state of emergency in the commonwealth “to protect hungry Virginians in need.” It was an important and necessary step by the governor, and Virginia will benefit as a result.
The commonwealth plans to stand up a parallel program that works in a similar fashion to the distribution of SNAP benefits. The Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance, as it is called, will provide qualified recipients with a weekly stipend (instead of monthly, as SNAP operates) sent directly to beneficiaries’ Electronic Benefits Cards on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week beginning next week.
The program is expected to cost $37.5 million per week and, per the governor, will be pulled from Virginia’s $2.7 billion budget surplus. Youngkin also ordered the distribution of $1 million to foodbanks across the commonwealth in an attempt to satiate the demand for assistance that those organizations have struggled to meet.
This is a unique solution to a difficult and urgent problem, for which the governor deserves immense credit. It is also unsustainable for Virginia should the federal government remain shut down.
Other states are similarly grappling with how to help the most vulnerable when Washington stops funding for essential services. Attorneys general from 25 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday filed suit to compel the U.S. Department of Agriculture to repurpose funds to extend SNAP benefits through November. Virginia was not among the litigants.
That lawsuit came after the Trump administration announced on Friday that it would not use reserve funding to pay SNAP benefits. The White House’s refusal to use the legal avenue available to continue providing food assistance to the needy stands in contrast to Youngkin’s announcement of Virginia’s stopgap program, in which he blamed the Democrats for shutting down a federal government led by a Republican president, a Republican House and a Republican Senate.
Youngkin would rather castigate Virginia’s Democratic senators than hold his fellow Republicans accountable for refusing to negotiate an end to this crisis — or, in the case of the U.S. House, even convene as a legislative body. Perhaps he should ask Speaker Mike Johnson why his chamber hasn’t met since Sept. 19 and has conceded its constitutional authority under Article I to the chief executive.
The governor has also been awfully quiet as President Donald Trump violates federal statutes by refusing to spend appropriated federal funds and moving money to his administration’s priorities, proving himself to be an untrustworthy negotiating partner. How can Democrats strike a deal with a White House that will simply ignore it and do whatever it wants?
All of this comes after the Republican Congress passed Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Act” that would dramatically cut assistance to programs such as SNAP that ensure low-income Americans can put food on the table. Despite the harm that would inflict on thousands of Virginia families, Youngkin hasn’t uttered a peep of criticism.
The governor’s decision to stand up a program that will preserve benefits for those who need them is objectively good. He deserves credit for stepping up when needed, though it could have been accomplished without a ham-handed effort to score political points.
The bottom line, though, is that this will help thousands of Virginia families, which is what really matters in this challenging moment.
