Beshear vetoes bill that would end COVID emergency early and threaten SNAP benefits
Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a resolution on Wednesday that would end Kentucky’s COVID-related state of emergency a month earlier than a previously agreed upon date.
The governor said that the resolution would cause the state to lose out on $50 million in federal food stamps linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in the month of May; that extra money would instead end in April with the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 150.
“Given that we have zero statewide restrictions, and we haven’t for six months, all this does is hurt these folks by cutting off this extra food aid while doing absolutely nothing else,” Beshear said in a statement.
The resolution received unanimous GOP support in the Senate and the House, though its consequences relating to SNAP benefits were only made public before the House vote via the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. Republicans have the majorities to easily override the governor’s veto in both chambers, but Beshear asked them not to do so.
Beshear said that well over half a million people were benefiting from the extra federal benefits to the tune of about $100 per month to spend on food.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has confirmed this, stating that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) COVID-related “emergency allotments” will be reduced by $50 million – in February, emergency allotments accounted for $52.8 million, or 40%, of the roughly $132 million in total SNAP benefits distributed.
“COVID continues to impact many families and it is indefensible to take food benefits away from Kentuckians — especially our most vulnerable seniors and children — who already go hungry at a rate higher than the national average,” CHFS spokeswoman Susan Dunlap said. “In Kentucky, 544,000 individuals representing 256,000 households are currently benefiting from the emergency allotments.”
The resolution is sponsored by Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, who is facing a primary challenger in Andrew Cooperrider, a Lexington business owner that rose to prominence in his defiance of Fayette County COVID-19 regulations.
On the Senate floor, Douglas argued that the state emergency needed to be ended earlier than the once agreed-upon date of April 14 set by Senate Bill 25 because it has “caused great harm” to Kentuckians.
During that time, GOP senators like Stephen West, R-Paris, said that the Beshear administration should communicate with them “if anything in this bill prohibits us from receiving federal funding.”
Dunlap said that her cabinet had communicated with key GOP legislators in early March.
CHFS had communicated with the legislature through health committee chairs Rep. Kim Moser, R-Taylor Mill, and Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, the week of Feb. 28, according to Dunlap. Still, the House passed it overwhelmingly on March 10 despite Democratic legislators on the floor warning about the loss in SNAP benefits.
Some GOP representatives said on the floor that getting another month’s worth of federal benefits shouldn’t be the primary concern when thinking about ending a state of emergency and that federal dollars are still taxpayer dollars.
“The question we really need to ask ourselves is, are we in a state of emergency? Are the hospitals overflowing? Are the deaths skyrocketing? Are the numbers climbing? That is the question we need to ask, not whether we can squeak by another month or three on federal money,” Rep. Thomas Huff, who carried the bill in the House, said.
Kentucky’s COVID-19 numbers are quickly declining based on most metrics.
In a statement Monday, Senate President Robert Stivers emphasized that the resolution has included in it a clause that it’s “not the intention” of the General Assembly in passing the resolution to “impair or delay” the receipt of any pandemic-related funds.
“If the governor needs something from the legislature, he still has time to come to us and we have time to respond,” Stivers said.
Spokespeople for GOP majorities in the House and Senate have yet to respond to a request for comment on their plans to respond to the governor’s veto.
“It comes down to this simple question: do you want our struggling seniors and kids to be able to afford enough food as we navigate out of this pandemic,” Beshear asked. “I certainly do.”
