The former governors, from across the political spectrum, warn that halting or reducing SNAP funding would endanger vulnerable children, seniors, veterans, and working families, while creating chaos for state governments that rely on federal consistency to administer the program.
In the brief, the former governors emphasize:
- Protecting Public Health and Children’s Development: SNAP reduces food insecurity, improves child development, and lowers healthcare costs. Nearly 40% of SNAP recipients are children, and over a million are veterans. Delays or cuts would immediately harm families who often face choosing between food, rent, childcare, or medicine.
- Stabilizing Local Economies: Every federal dollar spent on SNAP generates approximately $1.54 in economic activity, supporting grocery stores, farmers, and local businesses—especially in rural communities.
- State Governments Cannot Replace Federal SNAP Funds: The SNAP program is a federally funded program that totals more than $93 billion annually. States, already required to balance budgets, cannot absorb these costs or redesign complex delivery systems to issue partial benefits without causing delays, system failures, or hunger.
Since its inception in 1964, SNAP has never been halted—not even during prior government shutdowns. The governors argue that breaking this precedent violates decades of bipartisan policy, destabilizes state systems, and places millions at risk of hunger.
The governors urged the Court to affirm the lower court’s ruling and require the federal government to continue full SNAP benefit payments while the case proceeds.
The signers of the brief conclude by saying:
“Families facing delayed SNAP payments must make desperate short-term decisions: skipping meals, missing work to seek emergency food assistance, falling behind on rent to buy groceries, or turning to high-interest debt. And in turn, these choices will put a strain on state and local resources that may have side effects for years to come. Hunger does not wait, and neither should this Court.”
The former governors signed on to the U.S. Supreme Court brief include:
- Janet Napolitano (AZ-D)
- Jerry Brown (CA-D)
- Gray Davis (CA-D)
- Bill Ritter, Jr. (CO-D)
- Jack Markell (DE-D)
- Tom Vilsack (IA-D)
- Pat Quinn (IL-D)
- Bill Graves (KS-R)
- Kathleen Sebelius (KS-D)
- Deval Patrick (MA-D)
- Bill Weld (MA-R)
- Parris Glendening (MD-D)
- Martin O’Malley (MD-D)
- Jennifer M. Granholm (MI-D)
- Arne Carlson (MN-R)
- Marc Racicot (MT-R)
- Roy Cooper (NC-D)
- Steve Sisolak (NV-D)
- Eliot Spitzer (NY-D)
- Ted Strickland (OH-D)
- John Kitzhaber (OR-D)
- Terry McAuliffe (VA-D)
- Howard Dean (VT-D)
- Christine Gregoire (WA-D)
- Jay Inslee (WA-D)
- Gary Locke (WA-D)
- Jim Doyle (WI-D)
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