As SNAP benefits are set to dry up this weekend, there is ink drying on a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins involving over 20 state attorneys general and several governors, including Laura Kelly of Kansas.
The lawsuit claims the SNAP program is getting “unlawfully suspended.” In calling this “an unprecedented choice,” Governor Kelly says “the federal government has a legal and moral responsibility to fund this program, not to take food out of the mouths of Kansas children.” She also says the federal government has SNAP-specific contingency funds and has also decided to fund other emergency programs while putting the SNAP program on indefinite pause.
Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins says Kelly’s decision to join the lawsuit is misguided, blaming Democrats for the shutdown and saying if Kelly was a doctor, “she would treat influenza by cutting off your arm.”
SNAP serves close to 190,000 people in Kansas.
