Press Releases

Governor Jay Inslee today announced his decision to preserve existing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for over 200,000 Washington households by providing additional assistance to those who participate in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Congresswoman Suzan DelBene issued the following statement:

“Today’s announcement by the Governor is good news for hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians, many of them who are children and seniors on fixed-incomes.

“I commend the Governor for his leadership and for taking a path forward that protects this much-needed nutrition assistance. Many working families in our state struggle every day to put food on the table and today’s announcement to preserve their SNAP benefits will help them and their families from going hungry.”

The 2014 Farm Bill made changes to the SNAP program which required states to provide a household $20 in LIHEAP assistance to maximize SNAP benefits. Previous law required states to provide $1.

While the Farm Bill did not eliminate SNAP eligibility for anyone still in need, Governor Inslee’s actions ensure that existing SNAP benefits will be maintained for all Washingtonians.

As a member of the Farm Bill conference committee, Congresswoman DelBene fought to protect SNAP benefits, and led a successful effort to include a $200 million SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) pilot that will create programs across the country modeled after Washington state’s Basic, Food, Employment and Training (BFET) program. This $200 million proposal will expand job-training programs for SNAP recipients to learn the skills they need to get a good paying job.