A million Bay Staters are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits just days from now, as a political firestorm has erupted amid the federal government shutdown, and a message from a state agency turns up the political heat.
As SNAP benefits are set to run dry in November, the Massachusetts DTA has posted a notice on its taxpayer-funded website blaming the Trump administration for the potential shortfall.
“President Trump is currently choosing to not issue November SNAP benefits that help you and many families put food on the table,” the Department of Transitional Assistance notice states.
“You may also have your benefits cut starting in November because of changes Congressional Republicans and President Trump enacted in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’” it adds. “Learn more and check back for updates at mass.gov/dta.”
The notice has a strikingly similar tone to the alerts found on federal agency websites, blaming Democrats for causing the government to shut down. Mike Cusher, the DTA’s director of external affairs, is doubling down on the finger-pointing.
“Due to the Trump administration’s federal government shutdown,” Cusher wrote in an email on Friday, obtained by the Herald, “November SNAP benefits are at risk of not being sent.”
State Sen. Ryan Fattman, R-Sutton, describes the DTA messages as a “type of political buffoonery that reinforces the brokenness of Washington, D.C., to everyday people.
“The post should come down as fast as our Washington delegation should go back to D.C. and vote to reopen the government,” Fattman told the Herald Friday afternoon. “Using taxpayer resources to promulgate political messaging, whether it happens on the state or federal level, is immature, alienating and potentially illegal.”
When asked who authorized the post and about its intentions, a governor’s spokesperson referred the Herald to a press release and a news conference that Gov. Maura Healey held earlier on Friday.
Healey, alongside Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, among others, cried for help, calling on Trump to reverse what they say is an “unprecedented decision” to end SNAP benefits.
More than 1.1 million Bay Staters rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to afford food, 32% of whom are children, and another 31% are people with disabilities, according to the Healey administration.
“Donald Trump is the only President in the history of the United States to cut off SNAP benefits from the American people,” Healey said. “He is forcing millions of people – children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities – into hunger, raising costs and hurting local farmers and businesses. He is choosing to do this.”
Also, top Republicans are slamming Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark for saying that Democrats are using the government shutdown – causing families to suffer – as “leverage.”
“Of course there will be families that are going to suffer,” Clark, the House Minority Whip, said in a national interview this week, “but it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
Speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson highlighted how Clark “works right under Hakeem Jeffries, as the No. 1 Democrat,” before he repeated her comment.
“By her own admission, she knows that the American people are suffering,” Johnson said. “Democrats know that millions of federal workers are desperate for their paychecks. … They know that SNAP benefits and nutrition assistance for women, infants and children are in jeopardy for millions of American families.
“And yet, they don’t seem to care,” he added. “But you know what? Take heart, America, take heart, because all of your suffering is for a good cause. It’s for the Democrats’ political leverage.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined that contingency funds are “not legally available to cover regular benefits” during the shutdown. The agency is blaming Congressional Democrats for refusing to pass a “clean continuing resolution” that it says would keep funding flowing.
Republicans are still in need of five votes to clear the 60-vote threshold to ensure passage of the GOP’s government funding legislation after a single senator failed to switch their vote for the 12th time, this week.
John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Angus King, I-Maine, remain the three Democratic caucus members in favor of the bill.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey focused on the ballroom expansion at the White House during a news conference on the potential SNAP cuts in Boston on Friday. The ballroom is being constructed through private donations.
“While the most vulnerable of Americans can’t and won’t be able to put food on their kitchen table, Donald Trump is building a $300 billion ballroom next to the White House,” Markey said. “ This is a complete lack of conscience shown by the Republicans and the MAGA supporters all across this country.”
Republicans have introduced bills in the House and Senate that would fund SNAP payments amid the shutdown. Democrats are demanding that Republicans negotiate on healthcare issues and consider enhancing the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits.
The Healey administration is also pointing to how Trump is set to implement “major restrictions” to SNAP eligibility under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which it says will cause over 150,000 Bay Staters to have their benefits reduced or eliminated.
One of Healey’s GOP gubernatorial candidates, Mike Kennealy, is calling the Bay State delegation to get back to work and end the shutdown. He called Clark’s comment “outrageous and abhorrent.”
“Tens of thousands of children in Massachusetts will be harmed if food assistance benefits stop,” Kennealy stated in a social media post. “It’s time for our all-Democrat congressional delegation to end the political theater and reopen the government so we can feed kids, pay our troops, and restart important infrastructure projects.”
