U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court on Thursday that the Trump administration would no longer be trying to withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from the 42 million Americans who depend on the program to put food on their families’ tables. The issue was moot, Sauer said, after the longest government shutdown in American history ended on Wednesday after 43 days. Later on Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that SNAP recipients should expect their November benefits by today “at the very latest.” That is, 17 days into the month.
It’s to his shame that the leader of the richest nation on Earth argued that he was incapable of feeding the American people.
To be clear, the Trump administration should have never stopped funding SNAP. Even during the middle of the shutdown, President Donald Trump could have and should have done everything in his power to make sure that the 12.3% of our population that depends on SNAP wouldn’t go hungry. It’s to his shame that the leader of the richest nation on Earth argued to the Supreme Court that he was incapable of feeding the American people.
In a recent piece called “The Hunger Games,” syndicated columnist Cal Thomas demanded “the elimination of mistakes, waste and fraud in the SNAP program.” Accountability matters. But the answer to any administrative mistakes in SNAP isn’t to attack hungry people. There’s no reason to believe that the less than 12% error rate the Government Accountability Office noted in 2023 had anything to do with the Trump administration freezing SNAP payments during the shutdown. The president likely had no problem withholding the aid because, as he said last month, “Largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats.”
People across the political spectrum receive food assistance. That includes Republicans across the country and in my home state of Louisiana.
SNAP is one of the most effective and efficient programs in our nation’s history. It keeps millions of families, children, seniors and veterans from going hungry every single day. It supports local grocery stores, farmers and small businesses. For every dollar invested in SNAP, nearly $2 circulates back into our economy. It’s not a handout — it’s a hand up.
Instead of cutting SNAP benefits, we should be working to strengthen them. We should make sure that no child in America goes to school hungry, that no senior must choose between food and medicine, and that no working family is punished for falling on hard times.
We send aid to other nations in crisis. We bail out banks and corporations when the economy stumbles. We hand out enormous tax breaks to billionaires who will never know what it feels like to choose between paying a bill and buying groceries. Yet, the Trump administration stood back and watched indifferently as more Americans formed lines at food banks this month. They didn’t stand in those lines because they’re lazy, but because life has simply become too expensive to live.
Hunger isn’t a moral failure — it’s a policy failure.
In Louisiana alone, nearly 690,000 people — including more than 200,000 children — struggle with food insecurity. That’s 1 in 7 of our neighbors. In New Orleans, almost 1 in 5 residents doesn’t know where their next meal will come from. Behind those numbers are real people — children going to bed hungry in a city that has fed the world for generations.
We can do better. America can do better. Americans deserve better.
I’ve spent my entire adult life — as a citizen, a small-business owner, an educator and an elected public servant — fighting for fairness and human dignity. I’ve seen what hunger looks like in the eyes of a child, a senior, a veteran and a working parent. And I will not stop fighting until “liberty and justice for all” includes a full table for every family.
Because hunger isn’t a moral failure — it’s a policy failure.
SNAP isn’t charity. It’s a bridge — a bridge that keeps working families from falling behind when times are hard. That’s what a decent and compassionate society does.
We cannot call ourselves the greatest nation on Earth and feel good about letting millions of Americans — including veterans, seniors and children — wonder where their next meal will come from.
Hunger isn’t a game. It’s a condition that nobody in the wealthiest country in the world should ever face.
And it’s a condition that the president of the United States should never force upon the American people.
