California Sues Trump Over Food Stamps

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang:

California is one of 23 states suing President Donald Trump’s administration trying to force it to use emergency money to cover food aid for millions of poor families during the federal government shutdown, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday.

More than five million Californians rely on the program each month, known in California as CalFresh, nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and colloquially as food stamps.

Federally funded benefits amount to about $1 billion delivered to Californians’ electronic assistance cards each month to spend on groceries; program reduced the state’s poverty rate by 3 percent, state Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson said Tuesday. The average family receiving CalFresh receives $330 per month.

Last week, the USDA indicated it would not send the money for November as the federal government remained shut down, contrary to the department’s previous plans — and previous government shutdowns. Congress has not passed a bill to fund the federal government as Democrats and Republicans remain deadlocked over whether to extend health care premium subsidies that Trump wants to cut.

Government officials warn of growing hunger and search in food banks when recipients will have their monthly benefits withheld next week for the first time in the program’s 60-year history. Last week, Newsom fast-tracked $80 million in pre-approved state funds to food banks and called in the National Guard to help deliver aid. On Tuesday, he criticized the administration for withholding benefits as Americans head into the holidays.

Newsom and Bonta argue that it is illegal not to pay the benefits when the USDA has $5 billion to $6 billion in emergency funding that Congress has already authorized for emergency use under the program. The department spends about $8 billion a month on food aid nationwide.

A department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. A banner on his website blamed Democrats for the shutdown, falsely claiming they were using it to push health care for undocumented immigrants.

Alarming statistics about the mental health and well-being of young men have prompted a statewide effort to spearhead a series of initiatives aimed at helping them, CalMatters’ Adam Echelman writes.

Of the approximately 4.6 million Californians ages 16 to 24, nearly 500,000 of them, or more than 10%, are considered discontinued — meaning they don’t go to work or attend school. The majority of these unattached teenagers and young adults are male.

Men are also four times more likely than women to die by suicide; have higher rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer; and are more likely to use drugs and overdose.

Government officials and agencies are trying to deal with the problem. In a Executive Order of JulyNewsom described the “alarming increase in suicide and disengagement among young men and boys in California” and called for a series of state initiatives in education, health and careers to help men. The governor later unveiled a $5 million grant program in September to create more mentoring opportunities for young men.

The mental health team at the California Department of Health and Human Services helped put up nearly 250 billboards in major cities promoting the 9-8-8 suicide and crisis number, which featured the faces of young men. Funding from Proposition 1 — a state mental health bond that voters passed last year — is also being used to increase the number of male therapists.

Read more here.

Two recently introduced bills in Congress may help a closed hospital in a rural California town, but the road to reopening it remains unclear and difficultreports

Democratic U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and Republican Doug LaMalfa of Richvale are pushing two bills that would restore Glenn Medical Center’s “critical access” status, something it had for more than 20 years before it was revoked in April by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Critical access hospitals could get more federal money.

The revoked status left Glenn Medical Center with a budget hole it could not fill. It went out of business on Sept. 30, leaving Glenn County without its only hospital and 150 health care workers out of a job.

But in addition to restoring its critical access status, the hospital will also need a lot of money to reopen immediately — especially because it takes months before the hospital receives reimbursement from insurers, and the facility needs money to reimburse and pay doctors, nurses and other workers.

A spokesman for American Advanced Management, the for-profit company that owns Glenn Medical Center, estimated it would cost tens of millions of dollars to bring the medical center back.

Read more here.