Lombardo tours food bank on day 3 since SNAP benefits were paused

If food stamps and federal workers’ paychecks aren’t restored in the coming weeks, Nevada is prepared to continue helping people stay fed, Gov. Joe Lombardo said Monday.

Lombardo toured a mammoth food bank in North Las Vegas that supplies more than 150 distribution sites in Southern Nevada days after the state earmarked nearly $40 million to help fund two large food banks in the state.

“If people don’t understand the place that they’re in, and the fear creeps, we are here to provide the solutions for it,” the Republican governor said from Three Square’s headquarters. “Hopefully it’s going to be a short-term solution and we go back to the traditional system, but we are prepared to take action if it is not short-term.”

The governor’s visit occurred on day three since Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for about 500,000 Nevadans were paused amid the federal government shutdown, which entered its second month Saturday.

Reacting to court decisions Friday that ruled the federal government has to tap into a contingency fund to pay for SNAP benefits, Lombardo said the state’s plans moving forward should become clearer this week, including whether it will require a special legislative session.

“I don’t want anybody to get overexcited on this,” he said about the rulings. “Pending success in the litigation and ability for the federal government to fund SNAP’s management, that doesn’t happen overnight.”

Courts order SNAP funding

Meanwhile, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it would comply with the court orders and partially fund SNAP.

The Associated Press reported that the contingency fund the government said it intends to use would cover about half of the benefits.

“There’s enough money to do full funding, so why go halfway,” Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nevada told reporters Monday. “But it’s better than nothing.”

She added: “It was illegal for them to make the decision in the first place to not do it, and judges decided and compelled them to do it.”

When the funds were arriving on electronic benefit transfer cards was not immediately clear.

Even then, restoring the funds would take time, Lombardo noted.

The federal government spends about $90 million a month in Nevada to fund SNAP benefits for the roughly half-a-million recipients.

The $30 million approved last week by the Interim Finance Committee and $8.6 million Lombardo’s administration allotted from Nevada projects savings should help with influx need at food dispensaries for up to 12 weeks, said Three Square President and CEO Beth Martino last week.

“It would be malpractice not to address that need,” Lombardo said.

An additional $200,000 for Nevada National Guard members, who will logistically help the food banks, also was green-lit Thursday.

Lombardo activated the Guard members for two weeks and said officials would know this week if their time needed to be extended.

The Interim Finance Committee last month also approved $7.3 million to help fund the state’s nutritional program that helps feed about 56,000 pregnant women, new mothers and children into late December.

D.C. debate

Republicans and Democrats have blamed each other for the government funding expiring Oct. 1. The stalemate has centered around subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats argue that expiring health care appropriations will cause health insurance costs to balloon.

President Donald Trump told CBS News in an interview that aired Sunday that Republicans need five Democrats to reopen the government.

“Obamacare is terrible,” he said. “It’s bad health care at far too high a price. We should fix that … and we can fix it with the Democrats. All they have to do is let the country open, and we’ll fix it.”

Influx of food-insecure Nevadans

In the meantime, Three Square has moved to provide excess food supplies to its network to keep up with demand.

Over the weekend, the nonprofit erected four emergency pop-up distribution points across the Las Vegas Valley and will continue to do so, Martino noted.

Nearly 3,000 Nevadans showed up over two days, Martino said. “Across all of those locations, we saw federal workers coming out.”

Need at food dispensaries in Southern Nevada had already increased by 16 percent over the past four months, she added.

Lee and her Nevada Democratic colleague, Rep. Steven Horsford, on Monday volunteered at Las Vegas food dispensaries.

Long vehicle lines snaked from Decatur Boulevard into the The Just One Project food pantry, where Lee helped box and load up food into trunks Monday morning.

“You’re seeing people who were waiting hours to get food. It’s actually very heartbreaking, because this didn’t need to happen, and it was a choice of this administration,” said Lee, noting the Republican trifecta in Washington, D.C.

In an X post, Horsford described the turnout.

“Hundreds of Nevadans are lining up for help — proof that this crisis is hurting real people,” he wrote. “But it’s also proof that, Nevada steps up.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.