{"id":24200,"date":"2025-10-28T20:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24200\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:44:07","slug":"florida-democrats-urge-desantis-to-issue-emergency-declaration-with-snap-benefits-at-risk-because-of-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24200\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Democrats urge DeSantis to issue emergency declaration with SNAP benefits at risk because of shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Democratic legislators are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency on food insecurity, as nearly 3 million Floridians face potential loss of federal food assistance<\/a> if the government shutdown extends beyond Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Nearly 3 million Floridians receive SNAP benefits. An expert explains how a pause in federal food aid could impact them<\/a><\/p>\n

State lawmakers sent a letter to DeSantis on Tuesday requesting emergency measures to protect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which provide monthly grocery assistance to low-income individuals and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Florida, nearly 3 million people will go without SNAP benefits if the government shutdown continues,\u201d said State Rep. Angie Nixon. <\/p>\n

She\u2019s one of the people who signed the letter. <\/p>\n

In the letter, the lawmakers ask the governor to:<\/p>\n

Declare a State of Emergency on Food Insecurity to unlock state emergency resources, including but not limited to funding;<\/p>\n

Authorize state agencies to draw from the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund to acquire non-perishable food items, fresh from Florida produce, meats, and dairy, and other aid to address food insecurity; <\/p>\n

Direct the Department of Children and Families to coordinate with local food banks and community partners to distribute aid immediately;<\/p>\n

Request the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to implement universal school meals programs for the duration of the emergency.<\/p>\n

Nixon said the impact of losing benefits would span various demographics, including active-duty military members, teachers, and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we need to force him to ensure that he\u2019s looking out for our families and our neighbors here in the state of Florida to make sure our babies do not go hungry,\u201d Nixon said.<\/p>\n

Several states, including Virginia<\/a> and Louisiana<\/a>, have already declared states of emergency in response to the looming SNAP crisis.<\/p>\n

Some people who use SNAP told News4JAX they\u2019re concerned about what the loss of benefits will mean for them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are we supposed to do?\u201d one man said. \u201cHow are we supposed to survive if we\u2019re not getting what we\u2019re supposed to get?\u201d <\/p>\n

That man also said he sees people\u2019s comments online, implying that all people on SNAP benefits need to do is \u201cget a job\u201d or \u201cget a better one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s not that easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are not hiring,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to give you a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

News4JAX reached out to the Governor\u2019s Office asking if they plan to declare a state of emergency. We\u2019re waiting to hear back. <\/p>\n

We also asked the same question of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, since some Georgia lawmakers also asked him to declare a state emergency. <\/p>\n

His office referred us to an X post<\/a> where he says in part: \u201c…It is past time for D.C. Democrats to pass the continuing resolution they previously voted for 13 times when Joe Biden was president and get back to working for the people of our state!\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Democratic legislators are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency on food insecurity, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18523,2218,28,30,29,2582,99,412,18522],"class_list":{"0":"post-24200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-angie-nixon","9":"tag-federal-government-shutdown","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-government-shutdown","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-ron-desantis","16":"tag-state-of-emergency"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}