Governor Healey responds to Trump Administration threatening to withhold SNAP funding from blue states 

BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey issued the following statement after President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, said that the United States Department of Agriculture would withhold SNAP funding for Democratic-controlled states starting next week. Massachusetts has not received notice from the federal government about withheld funds. 

“This is truly appalling and cruel,” said Governor Healey. “The Trump Administration is once again playing politics with the ability of working parents with children, seniors and people with disabilities to get food. President Trump needs to order Secretary Rollins to release SNAP funding immediately and prevent more Americans from going hungry.”  

According to Rollins, blue states must comply and give the Trump administration data on who is receiving SNAP including their immigration status. 29 red states have reportedly complied, and 21 blue states have not.

Rollins stated that the move is to combat fraud in the SNAP program, citing that 186,000 dead people were receiving benefits through the program.