Plans were underway last week by Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration to get money into Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) debit cards so more than 66,000 Alaskans dependent on this money can feed their families.
Dunleavy said on Nov. 3 that officials will work with the federal contractor responsible for loading up the EBT cards to deposit benefits on a weekly schedule, so people depending on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds can purchase food. SNAP provides financial assistance to low-income Americans for food and groceries.
The Alaska Department of Health is also to begin discussions with food banks and aims to work with them to ensure that resources are available to assist Alaskans in getting SNAP benefits, the governor said.
How soon the EBT debit cards would be loaded, however, was still uncertain.
Dunleavy has been meeting with Speaker of the Alaska House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, and Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, on getting SNAP benefits restored. SNAP funding, which comes from the federal government, temporarily lapsed on Nov. 1 because of the continued government shutdown.
“Alaskans shouldn’t have to worry about how they’ll feed their families because of a federal stalemate,” Stevens said.
The disaster declaration will last no longer than 30 days, or as soon as the federal government reopens.
On Monday, following federal court rulings that the government must fund SNAP, President Donald Trump’s administration said it would partially fund the program, but officials were uncertain how quickly that money would become available to people enrolled for SNAP.
U.S. Rep. Nick Begich’s staff said the congress member understands how serious the situation is for families across Alaska, especially in rural communities, and that he is pushing for a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government so programs like SNAP can resume.
“I’m in Washington, D.C. working, standing with our federal workforce who are working without pay, waiting for the Democrats to change course and do the right thing,” Begich told The Cordova Times.
His Democratic challenger for the state’s lone House seat, Rev. Matt Schultz, said the federal government must respond to the order, which he said is “the fastest way to make sure the one in ten Alaskans who rely on SNAP, including families from Western Alaska who were evacuated after Typhoon Halong, can eat this month.”
Begich has voiced support for a Republican plan in the House Agriculture Committee to shift a portion of SNAP benefit costs to states based on error rates – which measure a state’s “eligibility and benefit determinations,” according to the USDA.
Alaska has a high error rate and would be hard hit, and Shultz says that would be a “bad deal for Alaska.”
“We have a small population, higher food prices, complicated rural delivery, and right now we’re managing storm displacement, which makes the system more complex and raises the error rate,” he said. “Punishing Alaska for that would mean cutting benefits from people who are already paying the highest grocery bills in the country. Instead, we should improve the administration of SNAP in Alaska and keep SNAP federally funded so rural and evacuated families aren’t the ones who take the hit.”
