The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to demand immediate federal action to get food assistance for almost 400,000 county residents cut off from SNAP benefits.
Based on a proposal by Supervisors Paloma Aguirre and Terra Lawson- Remer, the board directed the chief administrative officer to send a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture administrator calling "for the immediate release of the (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) contingency reserves and use of existing federal transfer authority to sustain food benefits for families during the federal shutdown," along with waiving a required timeline for reviewing the letter.
Aguirre and Lawson-Remer said SNAP benefits are being held up for 400,000 county residents, including 125,000 children and 100,000 seniors.
On Monday, the Trump administration said it would partially fund SNAP/CalFresh in November as a result of court rulings requiring the government to keep the federal food assistance program running.
On Tuesday, however, President Donald Trump appeared to reverse course, saying he will withhold food stamps until the government reopens.
"SNAP benefits increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars during Crooked Joe Biden's disastrous term in office," Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. "(Due to the fact that they were haphazardly `handed' to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" Trump wrote.
The USDA, which oversees SNAP, had planned to freeze payments starting Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown.
On Friday, two federal judges separately told the USDA that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to maintain food assistance to needy families despite the shutdown — and gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so. The program serves about one in eight Americans.
It's not clear exactly how much beneficiaries might receive, nor how quickly they will see value show up on the debit cards they use to buy groceries if the money is released. November payments have already been delayed for millions of people.
Before Tuesday's vote, Lawson-Remer said it is the administration's legal, ethical and moral duty to release the SNAP funding.
"The food crisis we're in today is not an accident — it is manufactured," said Lawson-Remer, board chair.
Aguirre said no family should have to worry where their next meal will come from. "This is not about budgets or bureaucracy, this is a clear power grab by the Trump administration," she added.
Supervisor Jim Desmond voted yes, but said he didn't agree with the board letter's political rhetoric or the inference that one political party is at fault for the shutdown.
Desmond, a Republican, said congressional Democrats voted 14 times against a bill that would end the government shutdown and that contingency funds for SNAP are a short-term solution.
The Board of Supervisors is a non-partisan governing body, now composed of three Democrats (Aguirre, Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe) and two Republicans — Desmond and Joel Anderson.
"We're treating the symptom but not the cause," said Desmond, who added that expanding welfare creates permanent dependency, while college grads can't find jobs and high prices shut out young people from owning a home.
"The real crisis isn't the lack of government programs, but a lack of opportunities for young people to move up, for people take care of themselves," he said.
In a statement after the vote, Desmond said he voted yes because "no family should go hungry because politicians in Washington are playing games with people's livelihoods."
Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe said political infighting aside, "it has been very clear that the priority for this federal administration" is the top 1% of income earners. Income inequity is growing, "and that is the problem," she added.
Aguirre said the purpose of the board letter is to ask the Trump administration to comply with court rulings.
"I thought this administration was about law and order," she added.
