Florida Democrats urge DeSantis to declare SNAP state of emergency

All 43 Democratic Florida state legislators sent a letter Tuesday to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) asking him to declare a state of emergency over the impending halt in funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Starting Saturday, SNAP benefits for millions are set to run out as the nearly monthlong government shutdown persists.

“This is not speculation; it’s reality,” the lawmakers, led by state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D) and state Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman (D), said in the letter. “We are days away from a full-blown hunger emergency that will leave families without food during the holiday season. The state cannot stand by.”

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank dedicated to combatting poverty and inequality, more than 2.9 million Floridians received SNAP benefits in fiscal 2024, roughly 13 percent of the state’s population. Nationally, roughly 41.7 million people received SNAP benefits monthly in the same period, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The letter asks DeSantis to declare a state of emergency on food insecurity. By doing so, the governor would authorize state agencies to acquire food items from the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, direct the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) to coordinate with local food banks and community partners on aid distribution, and request the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to implement universal school meals programs for the remainder of the shutdown.

According to DeSantis’s fiscal 2025-26 budget, the preparedness and response fund consists of $1 billion.

“Florida has the fiscal strength to respond. What’s needed now is the moral will to act,” the lawmakers wrote in their request.

The USDA, which allocates SNAP funding to states, said last week it will not use more than $5 billion in contingency funding to partially cover the estimated $9.2 billion in benefits for next month. In a Friday memo, the department argued that the fund can only be accessed after unforeseen events, such as a natural disaster.

That contradicts a since-deleted shutdown plan that the USDA published Sept. 30, which noted that the department is congressionally mandated to allocate SNAP benefits using the contingency funding during a shutdown.

As October winds down, states are sounding the alarm. The DCF, which administers Florida's SNAP program, notes on its website that November benefits will not be issued until the funding lapse ends. 

The department added that SNAP money on a beneficiary’s electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card can still be used. When asked for clarification on whether leftover benefits could be used starting Saturday, DCF said "any existing SNAP benefits remain available for use."

DeSantis, when questioned on the letter during a Wednesday press conference, sought to flip the script on Democrats amid the shutdown, asking whether the lawmakers also sent one to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "asking him to stop filibustering the [government] spending."