Over the course of a conversation about the suspension of the SNAP food assistance program, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes looked back Wednesday night to her times as a teacher of children experiencing hunger and as a struggling mother whose path to college and career was unconventional.
“You know, when my kids were little, I was on SNAP. I was on food stamps,” Hayes said. “It was the difference between me putting my kids to bed hungry, and not. When I was a student going to school, working two jobs, I was still qualified for the program. So I know that there are people out there doing everything that they can and still just can’t get by trying to provide for their children.”
Hayes spoke in a livestreamed video interview with Lisa Hagen, Washington reporter for the Connecticut Mirror and Connecticut Public, in a studio at Connecticut Public in Hartford, the latest in a series of in-person interviews with top elected officials.
The conversation focused on the federal government shutdown that will enter its second month on Saturday, the same day the administration of President Donald J. Trump will suspend SNAP, the food program that helps feed 42 million Americans every month, including 366,000 in Connecticut.
Hayes had news to share during the interview. A federal judge in Boston will hear arguments Thursday in the lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of Connecticut and two dozen other states. The complaint alleged that the suspension of SNAP is unnecessary and violates congressional directives. The states are seeking an injunction blocking the suspension.
“If that happens, the 25 states who are involved will see relief if the judge agrees that those funds should be released,” Hayes said.
Hayes, 52, is a Democrat, a cop’s wife, and a former Waterbury school teacher who represents the 5th Congressional District of western Connecticut. She won her first term in 2018, two years after her selection as the national teacher of the year gave her a national profile and an unexpected entree to congressional politics.
She was one of two women of color elected to Congress from Connecticut and Massachusetts that year. They were the first elected from New England.
Hayes recalled her arrival in Washington in January 2019. It came during a previous federal government shutdown, one at the mid-point of Donald J. Trump’s first term in the White House
“In the class of 2019 there were 89 of us, and it was weird, because we all had family and friends come in from around the country,” Hayes said. “And one thing that I remember is that many of the federal buildings, the museums were closed. Some of the garbage collection wasn’t being done.”
After taking the oath, she recalled hurrying to a Democratic caucus. Her class brought Democrats back as the House majority, returning Nancy Pelosi as speaker. Republicans retained control of the Senate and, of course, the White House. She recalled it as a time of urgency and purpose.
Six years later, she is the ranking Democrat on a nutrition subcommittee, and she sees the suspension of SNAP in the larger context of a fraying social safety net. To casual observers, Hayes said, the threat to SNAP is new and unexpected. But not to Hayes.
“Attacks on SNAP have been literally a part of every legislative package that we’ve had to vote on,” she said. “SNAP was at the center with the farm bill, other budgets. It’s a program that, every time we have to negotiate, that’s something that my Republican colleagues want to cut.”
Hayes complained that the House Republican majority is trying to dictate the terms of a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the government in the absence of a budget. House Speaker Mike Johnson has not called a session since Sept. 19, and the GOP’s negotiating stance is “take it or leave it,” she said.
“I think the challenge is, if it were just SNAP, this would be a really easy conversation,” she said.
Republicans hold a majority in both chambers, but they lack the votes to pass the measure in the Senate without at least some Democratic support.
Democrats are holding out for an extension of tax credits passed during the COVID pandemic, first in the American Rescue Plan Act and then in the bipartisan infrastructure law. The credits, which subsidize premiums for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, are set to expire at year’s end, dramatically driving up premiums.
Hayes said she saw Republican pleas for a vote on a “clean bill,” one without the health subsidies, as disingenuous. Given the GOP’s refusal to engage in negotiations, the Democrats do not trust that the subsidies would get a fair hearing.
“I’ve heard [Senate majority leader John] Thune say, ‘Let’s open the government and we can talk about health care subsidies. I promise you a vote.’ There’s a trust deficit here,” Hayes said.
Congress has previously authorized the spending of contingency funds to continue SNAP, but the Trump administration ignores that, she said.
At the same time, she complained, there is news the administration is ready to buy two Gulfstream jets for use by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, demolish the East Wing of the White House for a ballroom, and deliver an aid package to a Trump ally in Argentina.
None of that helps create trust, she said.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
