WASHINGTON — Citing the availability a of $5 billion contingency fund, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell joined 213 House Democrats in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins demanding that the Trump Administration protect Americans’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the government shutdown.

In the letter, the lawmakers underscored the devastating consequences of a potential lapse in benefits and urged Rollins to release contingency funding to states and use all available statutory authority to transfer funds to cover Americans’ remaining benefits for November.

“Nearly a quarter of households in my district rely on SNAP to feed their families,” said Sewell (D-Birmingham). “For so many, SNAP means the difference between a hot meal and going to bed hungry. The fact that President Trump and Congressional Republicans would rather take food away from hungry families than work with Democrats to end this shutdown is shameful but not surprising.

“These are the same people responsible for making the largest cut to SNAP in American history less than four months ago.”

SNAP benefits were made available to eligible individuals in October, but due to the Agriculture Secretary’s unwillingness to use her statutory transfer authority along with the roughly $5 billion SNAP contingency fund to deliver benefits in November, 42 million Americans, including more than 750,000 Alabamians, risk not being able to keep food on their table, she said.

“… we were deeply concerned to see your comments suggesting that SNAP will run out of funding in two weeks and that no SNAP benefits will be issued in November…,” the lawmakers wrote. “USDA still has significant funding available in SNAP’s contingency reserve — which Congress provides precisely for this reason — that can be used to fund the bulk of November benefits.

“We urge USDA to use these funds for November SNAP benefits and issue clear guidance to states on how to navigate benefit issuance. Additionally, while the contingency reserve will not cover November benefits in full, we urge USDA to use its statutory transfer authority or any other legal authority at its disposal to supplement these dollars and fully fund November benefits.”