More than 280,000 Louisianans benefit from tax credits that made health coverage through the federal Marketplace affordable. But these credits will expire at the end of this year unless Congress acts. A new fact sheet from Invest in Louisiana and Families USA shows what’s at stake.
Confusion over SNAP payments as feds step in
Gov. Jeff Landry and legislative leaders worked last month to ensure that nearly 800,000 Louisianans who rely on federal food assistance will continue to receive November benefits amid the federal government shutdown. The state is now reversing those payments after a Monday announcement by the Trump administration to pay half of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits this month. The Louisiana Illuminators Greg LaRose explains:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said it will issue half of the typical monthly SNAP payments it provides for November because the $6 billion emergency fund it will use to pay them won’t cover the full cost. That 50% portion is more than the 25% Louisiana had planned to distribute each week in November to SNAP recipients. Last month, Gov. Jeff Landry ordered the Louisiana Department of Health to use $147 million in state funds to provide food aid for the elderly, disabled and families in need, effective Nov. 1.
The Trump administration’s SNAP payments are more encompassing than the state’s plan:
The governor said any “able-bodied” person who had received SNAP benefits but didn’t fit into one of the priority categories would need to turn to food banks. But with the federal government resuming its payments, all of the nearly 800,000 qualifying SNAP recipients in Louisiana will receive assistance — 50% for the time being — including the 53,000 Landry had pointed to food banks, state officials said.
State leaders are waiting on guidance from the federal government for how to tackle the other half of November SNAP benefits:
“We will be waiting for the government to open up and/or additional guidance being published before we make any decision on any further state program expenditures,” Louisiana Department of Health communications director Emma Herrock said when asked whether the state would cover the remaining 50% of SNAP assistance in November.
The Trump administration isn’t using all available funds to cover SNAP payments, which is leading to benefit cuts. That’s according to new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
The courts affirmed that the Administration could provide full benefits by transferring funds from other food assistance programs, as it has done twice to support WIC during the current government shutdown. Following rulings from two federal judges late last week, the Administration committed to use all of SNAP’s multi-year contingency reserves to provide partial allotments to SNAP participants — the bare minimum required by the courts thus far. But our analysis of the contingency fund spending plan the Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent to states finds that only about $3 billion in SNAP benefits will be issued, which is about two-thirds of the $4.65 billion the Administration says is available.
How ICE deported detainee, despite judge’s order
New details have emerged about the government’s decision to deport a person being held at Louisiana’s maximum-security prison in Angola, despite a federal judge’s order that prohibited him from being removed from the United States. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Meghan Friedmann explains what happened after Judge Shelly Dick’s Oct. 23 ruling:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office learned of the order just before 3 p.m. the next day, it said in court documents. That was about 12 hours after [Chanthila Souvannarath] was flown out of Alexandria to Baltimore, and about 4 hours after his flight left Baltimore for Laos, according to the records. Even then, the U.S. should have turned the plane around or taken Souvannarath back to the U.S. once he landed in Laos, lawyers for the ACLU wrote in a brief. They also argued the government should have been expecting a possible temporary restraining order after Souvannarath requested one on Oct. 17, but that ICE deported him anyway.
Half of federal broadband funds may go unspent
The Trump administration recently rewrote the rules for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a $42 billion Biden-era initiative aimed at expanding high-speed broadband access to rural areas. Now, the program may only spend half – around $21 billion – of the original allocation, according to a new report from the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School. The White House could claw back the “leftover” funds, but the report’s authors have other ideas. Route Fifty’s Chris Teale explains:
The group called for the administration and NTIA to “strategically invest” the leftover funds, including to put as much as half into a reserve fund that could be used for a second round of BEAD grants later or could help with any unexpected costs for this round of projects. … Finally, the ACLP suggested using $5 billion to support digital literacy training programs, in an echo of the digital equity grants that Trump killed this year, which is now being challenged in court.
As Teale notes, the reduced BEAD funding wasn’t a case of doing more with less:
In a separate analysis, ACLP found that 1 million locations may still be unserved with broadband, even after BEAD is completed. Santorelli said that figure may fall as various mapping data is rationalized across the states and other grant programs continue to have an impact. But given the likelihood that some internet providers default on some of their grant awards, as has happened in the past, a significant coverage gap will remain. ACLP said the BEAD reserve fund could also help connect anyone still without broadband given this finding. But leaving that many locations unconnected would represent something of a failure for BEAD’s original goal.
The number of BEAD-eligible locations in Louisiana is expected to decrease by 36% as a result of the changes by the Trump administration.
Fines, fees and financial strain
Many states, including Louisiana, largely fund criminal legal systems by fines and fees. A new report from the Urban Institute explains why this practice places a heavy burden on people with the fewest resources and does nothing to improve state budgets:
Among adults who were charged court- or incarceration-related costs, more than half had unpaid fine or fee debts, and most had experienced problems affording food, housing, or health care. Despite these challenges, few were asked about their ability to pay fines and fees or offered reductions, waivers, or community service alternatives to making payments. These findings suggest revenue gains from increased assessment and collection of fines or fees may be limited. And potential efforts to increase court and incarceration-related costs, in particular, would worsen household debts and material hardships.
Number of the Day
1.1 million – Number of layoffs by U.S. employers from January through October. This marks the largest reading since the Covid-19 pandemic and resembles the job loss experienced from 2008 through 2009 during the Great Recession. (Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas via the Washington Post)