WASHINGTON — The fight to fund food assistance for thousands of D.C. families may be heading to court. For the first time in a decade, the DC Council is considering suing Mayor Muriel Bowser for her refusal to fund the program.
The last time the Council sued a mayor was back in 2014 when the voters and the council approved budget autonomy, but then-Mayor Vince Gray opposed it. Now, the Council may bring Bowser to court for refusing to fund increases to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. The bill was passed unanimously and the $39 million set aside.
During the city’s New Year’s Day Fresh Start 5K, activists with DC Action protested the mayor and her refusal to fund the program chanting, “how many kids did you starve today?”
Jan. 1 was the day 140,000 residents in need were supposed to get a raise in their SNAP food benefits, but the mayor refused to fund the increases.
“I am infuriated," said Washingtonian Lark Yasmin. "I am so sad that our mayor refuses to do fundamental human rights."
Yasmin and her two college-aged children live in Northeast, D.C. and would have benefitted from the 9-month increase to SNAP. She said it is a lifeline for her family.
“My fight for them is to better their lives and the lives of others like them because I know my family is not the only one struggling to keep our bellies full and a roof over our head,” Yasmin said.
On Jan. 9, the DC Council will vote on an emergency authorization resolution to consider pursuing legal action against Bowser.
“This is not a step I think anybody on the Council wants to take, but it's in reaction to a pattern of the mayor de-prioritizing social safety net programs and then refusing to follow the law,” said Councilmember At-Large Robert White.
Mayor Bowser previously told WUSA9 the money may be better spent on other programs.
“Is it best to use it in another way to for the same people or almost similar populations of people that we would support in TANF or a summer program?” she wondered.
“We can't pit people in need against other people in need," White responded to Bowser's argument. "When we subject people to poverty and the traumas that come with poverty, we are exacerbating crime; we are exacerbating intergenerational poverty."
White added that he felt D.C. could be paying for what he called Bowser's "bad moves" for years or decades to come.
"This is a time where crime is spiraling, where our businesses are struggling, where our population is not growing much, so we have got to get better at that," he said. "For functions of government, I need the mayor and her team to focus on core government services, follow the law and start working with the council and working with the people.”
WUSA9 reached out to the mayor’s office for comment. We received the following statement just after 9pm:
Mayor Bowser has funded and implemented a multitude of programs designed to put cash in people's pockets while also putting them on the road to a good paying job and affordable housing.
The Department of Human Services currently provides more than 83,000 DC households with SNAP benefits. With significant fiscal and human resources pressures in our human services cluster, it’s not prudent to increase spending on one program, especially when demand for other programs that support the same people is increasing beyond our current budget.
Mayor Bowser’s recent conversation with Councilmember Henderson regarding Give SNAP a Raise was around these pressures and alternative and permanent ways to provide food support to residents in need. We hope to continue these conversations, and our goal is for the Council and the Executive to work together on more sustainable food investments. As our budgets tighten, we have a responsibility to first fund and sustain critical housing, shelter, and the cash and food assistance benefits already in place.
“If she really cares about young people and families, I'm just saying like, that's a basic need that just needs to be met,” Yasmin said.