The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits to 124 thousand Delawareans, and that assistance is set to disappear this weekend due to the federal government shutdown.
Gov. Matt Meyer responded to the looming deadline by declaring a state of emergency, saying SNAP benefits will be covered by the state on a weekly basis starting next week.
“This is a situation when you're literally looking at Delawareans who may not be able to feed their families, caused by the Republicans in Washington,” Meyer said at a press conference Wednesday. “We need to act. And so we're going line by line through our state operating budget, seeing what cash we have available.”
As recently as last week, Meyer said the state budget doesn’t have the resources to make up for the federal shortfalls in SNAP benefits. Making up the funding will cost the state about $5.4 million per week.
House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown said lawmakers are ready to help.
“We definitely want to collaborate with the governor's office because it's going to take all of us together to be able to make sure that funding is allocated for SNAP,” Minor-Brown said.
Meyer warned the state cannot make up for federal support for social services across the board, but his office will make sure SNAP benefits continue.
Minor-Brown added one possibility is using money from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Republican House and Senate leaders also offered suggestions, such as redirecting money designated for the Legislative Hall parking garage project. They also said legislators could use a portion of the $50 million set aside for ERP Cloud Migration, an initiative to replace software used for payroll and financial management.
Meyer’s plan includes providing additional assistance to food banks and pantries across the state.
“If you're able, we encourage all Delawareans to donate to the Food Bank of Delaware, to community organizations or your local church or synagogue or mosque, food pantry or soup kitchen – anywhere folks in your neighborhood receive food assistance,” Meyer said. “This is a time when Delawareans really can come together and help one another.”
The third step in Meyer’s plan is to call lawmakers back to Dover for a special session to address the $400 million revenue shortfall created by corporate tax cuts in the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill.
“Delawareans may recall that when we proposed our budget seven months ago, my first budget, it included contingency funds for this exact moment,” Meyer said. “But it was not considered by the state legislature.”
Meyer added things have never been more serious.
House and Senate leadership say in a joint statement they are relieved SNAP benefits will continue. But Minor-Brown said she’s not sure why Meyer felt the need to bring up the failed measure.
“I'm not a fan of dangling budget issues over vulnerable Delawareans’ heads,” Minor-Brown said. “I mean, especially at a time like this. I'm a grown up, so I just want to make sure we get done what we need to do for Delawareans. We need to stick to the goal here, which is to address the issues that are related to our budget.”
Delaware also joined 24 other states in a lawsuit this week against the Trump administration over SNAP benefits cutoff.
Even when the government reopens, the state faces rising SNAP costs. The federal government currently covers 50% of SNAP costs, but that is set to drop to 25% next year under the Big, Beautiful Bill.
Minor-Brown said Gov. Meyer’s office and lawmakers need to act as a team when allocating limited state resources.
“We have to be partners, at least for the sake of Delawareans,” Minor-Brown said. “We need to work together. So hopefully, moving forward, we can find a way to work collaboratively so we can address these issues because I'm sure there's more to come.”
With the state of emergency in play, Meyer said the state has the resources to fully fund SNAP through the month of November, but he hopes the shutdown comes to a close before then.
The state will provide funding to SNAP recipients immediately.
