Laura Gillen Sounds Alarm as Republicans Rip Food Away from Long Island Families

Republicans’ partisan gridlock has delayed the distribution of SNAP food benefits and cut recipients’ payments in half – leaving 1.2 million hardworking New Yorkers without food on the table.

Now, Congresswoman Gillen is calling out House Republicans, calling on Congress to come back into session and “do what’s in the best interest of all our constituents,” and stop using hunger “as a political weapon.”

Read more about the Congresswoman’s efforts:

CBS News: Rep. Laura Gillen says “hunger is being used as a political weapon” as federal food aid dwindles

• “I’ve been advocating with the Department of Agriculture. There is a reserve fund of $5 billion. It’s a contingency fund. That could be utilized to make sure that these SNAP programs are getting the funding they need to get food out to the people who need it. That has fallen on deaf ears, and it’s really unfortunate that using hunger is being used as a political weapon to try to get certain political results or to point the fingers at the other side.”
• “That’s not the way we should govern as Americans. We should be working together to do what’s in the best interest of all our constituents. This hunger does not just help people in Blue states. It helps people in red states. It helps people from both parties, all parties, no parties, and we in Congress have a job to make sure that we are feeding our citizens.”
• “We have a cost-of-living crisis in this country. Americans feel like no one in Washington is fighting for them. We have seen the largest transfer of wealth in the Big, Beautiful Bill that we have ever seen. We need to know that. We need to let our constituents know that we are fighting for them, whether it’s lowering their costs for health care, lowering the cost for groceries. And this is a fight. We are in it for them, and 80% of Americans believe that these health care tax credits should be extended. Republicans should get on board. This should not be a partisan issue. This is something that we should do right away.”

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