STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's turn to somebody who knows how the program works. Cindy Long spent decades working at the Department of Agriculture under Republican and Democratic administrations and ended her career there as the head of the agency that oversees government nutrition programs, including SNAP. Welcome to the program. Good morning.
CINDY LONG: Good morning.
INSKEEP: I just want to note the benefits just expired over the weekend. What do you think about when you hear somebody, as we just did, who says, I have immediately cut from three meals a day to one?
LONG: Well, I want to say it's shocking. And it is shocking because we have never seen SNAP benefits cut off like this. But on the other hand, it's not shocking because the research has been clear for a long time that SNAP helps people avoid food insecurity and they rely on it for their basic needs. So what do people expect other than people going hungry when SNAP benefits dry up?
INSKEEP: And I want to underline also we heard a single mom there who said, my kids are also affected. Is that normal if we look across this program?
LONG: Absolutely. The research shows that parents - the adults in a household try to protect kids first, and so they're the ones that will skip meals, but the food insecurity can flow down to children as well when things are very tight and having no SNAP benefits certainly equates to things being very tight.
INSKEEP: And I'm thinking about the common study that finds that people who faced a $400 emergency would immediately be out of money. They would not have the money on hand. I suppose we're talking here about people who just do not have a lot of extra food in the pantry or anyplace else.
LONG: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the reason people are on SNAP is because they are, you know, economically struggling. So when SNAP benefits go away, they have to scramble to find food from other places. So they're not only going to have to think about, you know, skipping meals, going hungry, but also trading off, you know, am I going to pay for my prescription this month?
INSKEEP: Yeah.
LONG: Because I need the money to buy food.
INSKEEP: So we heard from a woman there named Susan (ph), who said she doesn't want to give her full name because she doesn't want people to know she depends on this program. And that immediately makes me think, 42 million people. This might be my neighbor, right? This might be several people at my kids' school. How do I find out, and how can I help?
LONG: I think how can you help is really the key question, which is - and you've already discussed the fact that demand at food banks and other kinds of emergency food support is going to be going through the roof. So my advice to folks who want to help is to seek those places out in your community. Every community has food banks, food pantries, other kinds of support and provide to those entities that are going to be seeing, you know, soaring demand if they haven't already.
INSKEEP: Let me ask you about a complaint that is commonly made about government benefits. The complaint is that people are just getting free stuff, they don't really need it, that they could support themselves another way, and instead they're using taxpayer funds. That's the complaint. Are there some recipients of SNAP benefits who are working jobs, who are doing work but are just not making enough to support their families?
LONG: Oh, absolutely. Significant proportions of SNAP households work - you know, 70% of SNAP households include either children or the elderly or the disabled. But again, substantial proportions are working. You know, it's - I can't tell you how many people I've met over my career that have talked about how SNAP was a lifeline when they lost a job because of the economy or because, you know, the worker had to take care of a sick child or a sick parents. And it was a bridge that got them through a very difficult time. So the stereotype of folks being on the program for the long term because they would prefer to sit on a couch and not work, in my experience, is just not at all accurate.
INSKEEP: So let's check the political debate here. The administration has said we cannot legally spend this money. A couple of federal judges have disagreed and said, actually, you should get started with this money, with these emergency funds. Are you familiar with the emergency mechanisms here, given that this hasn't happened before? Did you ever have to contemplate anything like this? And do you think the administration should easily be able to start this program back up?
LONG: Yeah. You know, we've unfortunately been through a number of government shutdowns in the last several decades. I was at USDA for all of those. And what I can tell you is these specific SNAP contingency funds, while they never had to be used for benefits before, they were always considered available. They were part of the planning as - you know, as a last resort, they would be the place that USDA would go to fund this program. So when I first heard that the administration was taking this interpretation that they couldn't be used, it was extraordinary. And it seems that the courts have agreed with the prior interpretation that, no, indeed, these funds are available and should be used.
INSKEEP: Is this something you could walk in on a Monday morning and fix or is it going to take a while to fire things back up?
LONG: Well, there's going to be some process. The good news is the federal government can very quickly move the funds to the states. The states then have to sort out with a contractor how to get the benefits out quickly, you know, because we're already behind schedule. And to the extent that the benefits need to be adjusted to account for the fact that there's not a full amount of funding available, that may take a little time. So I believe that when things get turned back on, it will probably vary a little bit from state to state, but the feds can move fast.
INSKEEP: Good. Cindy Long, formerly of the Department of Agriculture. Thanks so much.
LONG: Thank you.
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