What to know as federal food help and preschool aid will run dry Saturday if shutdown persists - By Jonathan Mattise and Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press
A new lawsuit by Democratic state officials Tuesday seeks to uncork emergency money to help tens of millions of Americans keep buying food for their families after federal SNAP funding is expected to run dry Saturday due to the U.S. government shutdown.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries. A halt to SNAP benefits would leave a gaping hole in the country's safety net. Vulnerable families could see federal money dry up soon for some other programs, as well — from certain Head Start preschool programs to aid for mothers to care for their newborns through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC.
Here's a look at the situation.
Democratic officials sue
Tuesday's legal filing from attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia, plus three governors, focuses on a federal contingency fund with roughly $5 billion in it – enough to pay for the benefits for more than half a month. The officials also say the federal government could use money from a separate $23 billion fund to cover benefits.
President Donald Trump's Department of Agriculture said in September that its shutdown plan included using the $5 billion to keep SNAP running. But in a memo last week, it said that it couldn't legally use it that way. The memo also said the $23 billion is supporting other programs during the shutdown and that shouldn't be jeopardized.
The Democratic officials contend the administration is legally required to keep benefits going as long as it has funding.
The agency said SNAP debit cards beneficiaries use to buy groceries will not be reloaded as of Nov. 1.
With their own coalition, 19 Republican state attorneys general sent Democratic U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a letter Tuesday urging passage of a "clean continuing resolution" to keep funding SNAP benefits.
Lack of funds for SNAP benefits could affect millions
Most SNAP participants are families with children, more than 1 in 3 include older adults or someone with a disability, and close to 2 in 5 are households where someone is employed. Most have incomes below the poverty line, about $32,000 for a family of four, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The USDA says nearly 16 million children received SNAP benefits in 2023.
The average monthly benefit is $187 per person.
Beneficiaries say that without the aid, they'll be forced to choose between buying food and paying other bills. Food banks are preparing for a spike in demand that they'll have to navigate with decreased federal aid themselves.
Not everyone receives their SNAP benefits on the first day of the month, though many beneficiaries get them early in the month, with some differences by state.
States expect retailers will be able to accept cards with balances on them.
Some states seeking to fill void of SNAP benefit cuts
State governments controlled by both Democrats and Republicans are scrambling to help recipients. But several say they don't have the technical ability to fund the regular benefits.
Officials in Louisiana, Vermont, Virginia and Rhode Island have pledged to provide some type of backup food aid for recipients. The USDA says states won't be reimbursed.
More funding for food banks and pantries is planned in states including New Hampshire, Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee announced a plan Tuesday to funnel $6 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families reserves to TANF recipients who also receive SNAP benefits. He acknowledged that the plan using the federal welfare program would help only 60,000 of the state's 145,000 SNAP recipients. McKee also said the state would use $200,000 to boost food banks.
Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the state would create a new system to load EBT cards weekly for SNAP recipients, and also forward $1 million to food banks.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, said the state is opening a nonprofit fund typically used for disasters to give grants to food banks. But it needs immediate donations. Last year, it raised $6 million for Hurricane Helene relief. More than $100 million in SNAP benefits are delivered monthly in South Carolina.
West Virginia likewise has launched a donation drive for food banks, with up to $13 million in state matching money.
A Pennsylvania budget stalemate has held up more than $25 million in aid to food banks. Democratic lawmakers are pushing for $60 million in emergency aid for food banks and Meals on Wheels programs.
In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation made $6.75 million emergency relief funding available from its strategic reserves to help with direct payments to tribal citizens currently receiving SNAP benefits and grants to food banks and similar nonprofits within its reservation.
On the West Coast, Washington state said it would send nearly $2.2 million a week to food banks starting Nov. 3 if a deal to end the shutdown is not made by then.
Some states have called on National Guard troops to help distribute food at pantries and centers should SNAP benefits pause, including California and West Virginia, and South Carolina's State Guard. But at least some California food banks say they don't want National Guard members' help, fearing the Trump administration's use of those troops in mass deportation efforts could scare vulnerable residents from seeking food.
Early childhood education
More than 130 Head Start preschool programs won't receive their annual federal grants on Nov. 1 if the government remains shut down, according to the National Head Start Association.
Centers are scrambling to assess how long they can stay open, since nearly all their funding is federal. Head Start provides education and child care for the nation's neediest preschoolers.
With new grants on hold, a half dozen Head Start programs have already missed federal disbursements they were expecting Oct. 1 but have stayed open with fast-dwindling reserves or with help from local governments. All told, more than 65,000 seats at Head Start programs nationwide could be affected.
Food aid for mothers and young children
Another food aid program supporting millions of low-income mothers and young children already received an infusion to keep the program open through October. But states say that money could run out as early as Nov. 8.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents purchase nutritious staples such as fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and infant formula.
The program, known as WIC, risked running out of money in October because of the shutdown. The Trump administration reassigned $300 million to keep it afloat, but only for a few weeks.
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Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Contributors include Jeffrey Collins in West Columbia, South Carolina; Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska; John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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This version corrects the day of the South Carolina governor's announcement to Tuesday.
AG Torrez joins coalition suing over suspending SNAP benefits - Jeanette DeDios, KUNM News
Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D-NM) and a coalition of 23 AGs alongside three governors filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which they claim is unlawful.
SNAP currently helps more than 40 million Americans buy food and provide meals for children and seniors.
In New Mexico, more than 450,000 individuals rely on SNAP to feed their families. That’s 21% of the population, the highest in the nation.
Torrez said in a press release that he will not stand by and watch people go hungry at a time when too many are struggling with rising costs.
If the government shutdown continues, the USDA said that state SNAP agencies will not be able to issue funds for November’s SNAP benefits.
Despite the USDA’s claims, the coalition said the department has billions of dollars in emergency funds that could be used to offset the funding shortfall.
The coalition said the federal government is “making a deliberate, illegal and inhumane choice not to fund the crucial SNAP program.”
As of Tuesday, the government shutdown is in its 28th day.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
New Mexico officials renew push for $150M quantum tax credit - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Seeking to cement New Mexico’s place as the home of quantum computing, a top state economic development official told a legislative committee Monday that he hopes the Legislature will approve up to $150 million in tax credits for individuals and companies who come here to work in the burgeoning field.
Quantum computing refers to an emergent technology that uses elements of quantum mechanics to process complicated information more quickly than current technology can.
As Alex Greenberg, the governor’s economic development adviser explained it, unlike regular computer bits that are either a “zero” or a “one,” quantum computing uses “quantum bits” or “qubits” that can be a “one or zero simultaneously, or anywhere between a one and zero. And so each qubit is exponentially more powerful than its parallel in the classic computing realm.”
The increased computing power could mean rapid advances in cybersecurity and medicine, Greenberg told the interim Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee on Monday in Santa Fe.
“You can imagine the opportunities, in terms of breakthroughs of novel pharmaceuticals that are for a full range of ailments, which is really exciting,” he said.
The technology is likely years away from maturing, Greenberg said, but he listed off multiple companies that have put down roots in New Mexico, along with state universities that are beginning partnerships with those companies, to train a future workforce.
Like companies that made picks and shovels to enable the 20th century Gold Rush, the burgeoning quantum industry is hiring now, Greenberg said, to build the necessary tools for quantum development. One of those tools is “dilution refrigeration,” he said, which creates conditions colder than outer space.
“People project that quantum computing won’t become a reality until maybe the end of this decade, maybe midway through the next decade, but there’s a lot of picks and shovels, companies that are already profitable and already creating meaningful economic development opportunities,” he said.
This year, the company Quantinuum opened a research and development facility in New Mexico. It joins other private sector and government quantum startup efforts in the state, including the state-funded Roadrunner Quantum Venture Studio and the federally funded Quantum Tech Hub.
In early September, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a $120 million partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — the research and development wing of the U.S. Department of Defense — to ensure companies can deliver on their proofs of concept for quantum computing.
But Greenberg said the Legislature needs to add incentives to ensure highly skilled researchers and highly profitable companies don’t leave the state. He asked lawmakers to re-introduce legislation that died during the legislative session earlier this year.
Legislation like Senate Bill 211 would offer companies and individuals who invest at least $3 million in quantum facilities the opportunity to receive up to 30% of their investments back via tax credits, up to $50 million per facility.
The bill died without being heard in the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.
In total, the bill would have allowed for tax expenditures of at least $75 million and up to $150 million if the state had received a National Science Foundation grant called the Regional Innovation Engine award grant.
The grant provides states or regions up to $160 million to spur research and development of new technologies. According to the NSF’s September announcement, New Mexico was not among 15 finalists for the grant.
Greenberg on Monday attributed New Mexico missing out to federal cuts to the NSF. But he still said the full $150 million is necessary to spur innovation, retain talent and beat out other states that are trying to create their own quantum industries.
“The [intellectual property] that has driven these tens of billions dollars worth of valuation was created here in New Mexico,” he said, mentioning Sandia National Laboratories and University of New Mexico quantum innovations. “But we’ve captured almost none of that economic development.”
Supreme Court sets trial date to consider Gallup DA's removal - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
After two months of legal jousting, the court case that will determine whether a northwest New Mexico district attorney should be removed from office is set to start moving forward.
The state Supreme Court recently scheduled a three-day trial starting Dec. 1 to determine whether McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin should be removed from the office she was reelected to last year.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez in August filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to remove Martin from her office for failing to adequately do her job.
Specifically, the petition alleges Martin has violated state procurement laws, created a hostile work environment and relied on contract attorneys after running off all staff attorneys in her office.
Martin, who is the state’s first female Navajo district attorney, has defended her job performance and criticized legislators for essentially defunding her office during this year’s 60-day legislative session.
“We are not missing deadlines,” she insisted during an August news conference in Gallup that drew pointed questions and criticism from community members.
Martin said in recent court filings she is currently handling about 600 criminal cases alone in McKinley County since the Legislature defunded her office, and described the legal review of her job performance as improper and politically motivated.
“It is the duty of the district attorney, not the court, to engage in prosecutorial discretion with respect to charging individuals for the commission of crimes,” an attorney representing Martin wrote this month in a court-ordered response.
But her motion to limit consideration of the allegations against her to her current term in office — which began in January — was rejected last week by the Supreme Court.
In addition, the attorney general has directed prosecutors in his office to take over two criminal cases — a rape case and a murder case — that had been previously dropped by the McKinley County District Attorney’s office.
Under state law, district attorneys can only be removed from office in certain circumstances, including conviction of a felony offense, failure to discharge the duties of the office and gross incompetency or negligence. The Department of Justice petition claims Martin meets two of those criteria — the ones dealing with the duties of her office and gross incompetency or negligence.
While removing an elected official from office is uncommon in New Mexico, it’s not unprecedented. Most recently, former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin was ousted in 2022 for violating the U.S. Constitution’s anti-insurrection clause.
However, the system for determining whether an elected district attorney should be removed from office is largely untested in recent state history.
Under state law, petitions seeking removal of a district attorney are tried in the Supreme Court, not by a jury. Whatever decision the state’s highest court makes in such a case is final.
While the full Supreme Court will preside over the trial, the court has appointed Alan Malott, a retired state judge, as special master in the case to oversee initial proceedings and scheduling issues.
National Weather Service predicts slightly drier, warmer winter in New Mexico - John Miller, Albuquerque Journal
As a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, Matt DeMaria’s job — and one of his passions — is helping people make decisions based on the most accurate weather data he and his colleagues can provide.
But as they pore over winter forecasting models and maps each fall, he can’t help but hope they call for snow.
“I grew up in Georgia, and we don’t get a lot of snow there,” he told the Journal on Tuesday, “so whenever it did snow, it was always a fun time. I like winter weather, personally.”
Unfortunately for DeMaria and other New Mexicans who prefer white winters to dry ones, the forecast calls for higher chances of slightly below normal precipitation and warmer temperatures over most of the state from December through March.
“There’s just a slight lean toward the state being drier than average,” he said. “But it definitely doesn’t mean we can’t have periods in the winter where we have big storms.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of which the NWS is a part, released the annual report from its Climate Prediction Center this week. DeMaria didn’t work on the report, but a colleague, Brian Guyer of the NOAA, helped compile this year’s data.
To create their detailed forecast, meteorologists rely on a variety of tools to collect weather information from across the country. The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, for example, uses ground-based and airborne devices as well as satellites to generate a map predicting season snowfall based on historical measurements.
If the 2025-26 forecasts bear out, the upcoming winter season is likely to be similar to last year’s, with lower than average snowfall in the Land of Enchantment and other parts of the southwestern U.S.
DeMaria said that’s partly due to the continued affects of what he described as a “weak La Niña,” a climate pattern set off when water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is cooler-than-average.
In La Niña years, northern regions like the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes tend to have more winter storms, whereas southern areas, including New Mexico, are more prone toward greater aridity and elevated risk of wildfire.
The forecast varies greatly based on the area of the state in question.
“About 10% of the state is in an extreme drought,” DeMaria said. “We’re in severe drought for a lot of west-central and central New Mexico, including in the Albuquerque area. And then once you’re in northeastern New Mexico, there’s no drought at all. Soil moisture is doing well — they had a really great spring and summer. And then most of southern New Mexico is severe to extreme drought.”
Similarly, most New Mexicans know that mountainous areas like the Sangre de Cristos in north-central New Mexico are climatologically favored to receive greater precipitation and lower average temperatures than lower elevation areas, such as Las Cruces.
Enchanted Circle communities near Taos, including Red River, Angel Fire and Taos Ski Valley, have already seen their first fall freezes and dusting of snow in recent weeks and area resorts will soon begin snowmaking operations in anticipation of the upcoming ski and snowboard season.
The NWS also provided a weather briefing on Monday, telling residents in most parts of the state, including points farther south such as Roswell and Ruidoso, to expect temperatures to dip below freezing Wednesday night.
Residents across the state are being advised to bring pets indoors, leave faucets dripping, prop open kitchen and bathroom cupboards and protect fall crops from the chill.
Despite the mild winter the models predict, DeMaria said there can always be surprises, and that New Mexicans should always stay on their toes, especially when traveling in winter.
“We were also in a La Niña last year, and then we had that massive winter storm — a nearly historical storm — last November, and then another in May,” he said. “So it doesn’t mean you can’t have a really big storm in a year that ends up being below average for most areas.”