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Democrats on the federal and state level are calling for funding to keep SNAP going. With the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, expected to be suspended on Saturday due to the partial government shutdown, Congresswoman Lois Frankel appeared at the Palm Beach County Food Bank yesterday.
"I've joined 200 colleagues in the Congress with a letter urging the Department of Agriculture to keep this going."
But Agriculture Department officials say they cannot legally use contingency funds for regular monthly benefits.
By Frankel's side was Boynton Beach Democrat and state Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman.
"We in the Democratic minority sent a letter to the governor and we asked him to declare a state of emergency on food insecurity. We asked him to authorize state agencies to draw from that fund which is $5 billion in the state right now."
At the start of the press conference, Frankel pledged not to point fingers.
"We are going to try not to make this a political situation here today."
But she later appeared to blame Republicans for the 3 million Floridians expected to have to wait for their benefits.
"It's cruel to play politics with people...feeding people."
Republicans in the U.S. Senate have voted 13 times on stopgap measures to reopen the government, but have only received support from three Democrats.