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#hungergames — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hungergames, aggregated by home.social.

  1. #Maine among dozens of states suing #Trump administration over #SNAP funding

    by Russ Reed, October 30, 2025

    AUGUSTA, Maine — "Maine's attorney general is part of a coalition that sued the Trump administration for suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

    "In their lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Office of Management and Budget and their respective secretaries, 23 attorneys general and three governors claim the USDA does not have the authority to suspend SNAP.

    " 'Forty-two million Americans, including 169,000 Mainers, are going to go hungry this Thanksgiving because the Administration is simply refusing to use the billions available to prevent this,' Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement. 'It is unconscionably cruel and unlawful.'

    "The coalition suing the Trump administration said that on Oct. 10, the USDA sent a letter to state SNAP agencies saying there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits if the government shutdown continues.

    "According to the coalition, the USDA has access to billions of dollars in SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriated by Congress in the event of a government shutdown. The coalition also claims the USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during the shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP.

    "The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (#DHHS) announced on Oct. 21 it would not receive November's SNAP funding.

    "According to Maine DHHS, nearly 12.5% of the state's population receives SNAP benefits. State health officials also said the rate approaches or surpasses 20% in five of Maine's 16 counties: #Androscoggin, #Aroostook, #Piscataquis, #Somerset and #Washington.

    "Maine DHHS also said nearly 75% of the state's SNAP households include at least one working adult, more than half include a person with a disability, 43% include an older adult and more than one-third include children. The average monthly SNAP benefit for a family of four in Maine is $572, according to DHHS.

    "Maine DHHS shared the following information for the state's SNAP recipients:

    - November's federal SNAP benefits cannot be issued until the government shutdown ends or until new guidance is provided by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.
    - At this time, SNAP benefits already loaded onto EBT cards remain available for use to purchase food.
    - Applications, renewals and other updates continue to be accepted and processed by Maine DHHS during the federal government shutdown.
    - SNAP recipients are encouraged to sign up for e-noticing through My Maine Connection, which provides the fastest access to updates and notifications.
    - Recipients should ensure that contact information, such as their phone number and mailing address, remains current with Maine DHHS.

    "For help finding information on other available resources, call 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211. You can also visit 211Maine.org. When the government shutdown ends, more information will be available about the future of federal SNAP benefits.

    "Maine DHHS will share updates as soon as additional information becomes available.

    "Joining Frey in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of #Arizona, #California, #Colorado, #Connecticut, #Delaware, the #DistrictOfColumbia, #Hawaii, #Illinois, #Maryland, #Massachusetts, #Michigan, #Minnesota, #Nevada, #NewJersey, #NewMexico, #NewYork, #NorthCarolina, #Oregon, #RhodeIsland, #Vermont, #WashingtonState and #Wisconsin. The governors of #Kansas, #Kentucky and #Pennsylvania are also part of the lawsuit."

    Source:
    wmtw.com/article/maine-sues-tr

    #USPol #MaineResists #Resistance #ResistTrump #TrumpSucks #TrumpIsABully #TrumpIsAFascist #USPol #SNAPCuts #USDACuts #HungerGames #KillThePoor #FoodStamps #FoodInsecurity

  2. A list of the #SocialSecurity offices across the US expected to close this year

    By MEG KINNARD
    Updated 12:59 PM EDT, March 19, 2025

    WASHINGTON (AP) — "Dozens of Social Security Administration [#SSA] offices across the country are slated to close this year due to actions taken by #ElonMusk’s Department of Government Efficiency as part of the #Trump administration’s unprecedented effort to shrink the size of government.

    "#DOGE has published a list of nearly 800 federal real estate leases that it is seeking to cancel. The Associated Press has obtained an internal planning document from the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, which shows when nearly two-thirds of those cancellations are expected to go into effect.

    "The offices are closing despite a new requirement that tighter identity-proofing measures be put in place to prevent fraud and abuse. These steps will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with agency employees over the phone.

    "The AP also obtained more information about each lease on DOGE’s list through other publicly available datasets, including their addresses, the dates the leases had started and were originally expected to expire, and the landlords who own the properties."

    Read more (includes a list of offices that will be closing):
    apnews.com/article/social-secu
    #ResistDOGE #TakeToTheStreets #KillThePoor #USPol #KillTheElderly #HungerGames #Authoritarianism #Oligarchy #DisabilityRights #ElderRights #TakeCareOfThePoor #SocialSecurityPayments #SocialSecurityAdministration

  3. #Trump Admin Threatens to Stop #SocialSecurity If #DOGE Can’t Have #PersonalData

    Trump’s interim Social Security chief says he wants to turn off the program if Musk and DOGE can’t access Americans’ most sensitive data

    by Andrew Perez, March 21, 2025

    "Donald Trump’s interim Social Security chief suggested Thursday night he will effectively turn off the agency that manages the essential safety net program for seniors and the disabled, if Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can’t access the non-anonymized sensitive personal information and data of hundreds of millions of Americans, based on a judge’s order.

    "'My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,' said #LeeDudek, acting Social Security Administration (#SSA) commissioner, arguing the order was too broad, according to Bloomberg News. 'As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,' he said, adding: 'Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.'

    "Dudek’s threat to block SSA employees from using the agency’s IT systems — a move that could halt #SocialSecurityPayments — came in response to a judge’s temporary restraining order in a case brought by the #AFLCIO #LaborUnion. The order bars Social Security Administration officials from allowing DOGE, including Musk, and the SSA’s DOGE team to access personally identifiable information. It also directs Musk and DOGE to delete from their possession all non-anonymized personal data, and bars them from having access to SSA computers or code.

    "Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the SSA had likely violated administrative and privacy laws when it gave DOGE 'unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses.'

    "She added that the 'defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government.'"

    Read more:
    rollingstone.com/politics/poli

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/vvgMF
    #ResistDOGE #TakeToTheStreets #KillThePoor #USPol #KillTheElderly #HungerGames #Authoritarianism #Oligarchy #DisabilityRights #ElderRights #TakeCareOfThePoor