Governor’s office confirms plans for Monday session even after November food assistance payouts reach nearly 460,000 New Mexicans

Source New Mexico Staff

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

As legal battles over the fate of federal food benefits for November continue, New Mexico will proceed with plans for a special legislative session on Monday, the governor’s office confirmed to Source New Mexico.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the special session on Thursday, amid ongoing legal wrangling about whether the United States Department would pay out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to the 42 million Americans — approximately 460,000 New Mexico residents — who receive them.

The state previously allocated $30 million to tide over New Mexico SNAP recipients for roughly the first 10 days of the month, which will run out Monday.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that families don’t go hungry waiting for this essential nutrition program to resume,” Health Care Authority Kari Armijo said in a statement when the session was announced. “This special session will allow us to continue serving New Mexicans while federal funding for the SNAP program remains uncertain.”

On Friday, the USDA told states it was releasing full November funding for the nation’s major food assistance program that helps 42 million people afford groceries, complying with a federal court order issued Thursday.

The governor’s deputy communications director, Jodi McGinnis Porter, confirmed to Source the state received the letter.

“The special session is moving forward Monday because Republicans in Congress still refuse to end this needless government shut down,” a statement from McGinnis to Porter said. “While we are relieved that November benefits have been released, we are still cautious about relying on future SNAP funding being available. We’re not taking any chances with 460,000 New Mexicans’ food security.”

Indeed, on Friday night, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the order for the Trump administration to pay for a full month of food benefits, hours after some states began loading nutrition assistance funds on payment cards held by the 42 million Americans who use the program. However, the governor’s office on Saturday said residents received 100% of their November SNAP benefits after the state loaded the funds to EBT cards prior to the court ruling.

Democratic state leadership on Thursday had praised the forthcoming special session, while their Republican counterparts criticized New Mexico’s congressional delegation — specifically U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both Democrats — for not voting to reopen the federal government, which is now closed for the 38th day amid an impasse between parties over Democrats’ push to extend health insurance tax subsidies, among other issues.

Heinrich and Luján fired back Friday, saying via a joint statement that “Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate. President Trump and Congressional Republicans chose to shut down the government, chose not to lower health care costs, and chose not to use funding they already have — and were ordered by a court to disburse — for SNAP.”

New Mexico’s Republican state legislators, the statement continued, “have not called on President Trump and Congressional Republicans to comply with court orders to fund SNAP, have not called on them to work with Democrats to reopen the government and address skyrocketing health care costs, and have not condemned their party’s decision to block our legislation to keep families fed and pay service members and federal employees. Their silence speaks volumes, and their complicity in Trump’s government shutdown is infuriating.”

New Mexico Senate Republican Whip, Pat Woods (R-Broadview) responded via a statement calling “the irony from Luján and Heinrich is laughable… and predictable. President Trump doesn’t have a vote in the Senate. He can only take action when a bill comes to him. Senators in the U.S. Senate, those people have a vote. Why accuse Trump when it’s your own house that needs to get in order?”

House Republican Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena), similarly, said via statement: “The only thing blocking federal funding for SNAP, service members, and federal workers is their refusal to vote to reopen the government. Their press releases do nothing for hungry families or unpaid troops. If they are serious about helping New Mexicans, they should stop blaming others and cast the vote that ends the shutdown.”