Following a request by state legislators and similar action by other states, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Monday declared a 30-day state of disaster that allows the state to temporarily fund federal food-aid programs used by tens of thousands of Alaskans.
The state of Alaska will spend up to $10 million for direct financial assistance to Alaskans who use the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as much as $5 million per week, the governor said in a letter he sent to Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, and Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, on Monday.
Funding SNAP for an entire month would cost about $27 million per month, the governor said in a radio interview on Friday. “We don’t have it laying around,” he said, “and I don’t mean that flippantly, but we simply don’t because the money’s dedicated (to another purpose).”
The Dunleavy administration said on Monday it will work with federal contractors to make sure SNAP payments reach eligible Alaskans’ accounts each week and it will direct the Alaska Department of Health to work with food banks, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
An official with the Alaska Department of Health said on Monday afternoon that there was no timeline for when the first payments would reach Alaskans’ electronic benefit cards.
More than 66,000 Alaskans failed to receive their monthly food aid, colloquially known as food stamps, on Saturday. While almost one in 10 Alaskans receives aid through the program, that proportion is higher in rural and poorer parts of the state — Edgmon, who represents part of Southwest Alaska, said half of the residents in parts of his district receive help through SNAP.
Last week, and over the weekend, Dunleavy worked with members of the Legislature to find a way to fund food aid programs with state dollars instead of federal money. In a radio interview on Friday, the governor suggested it might take as long as three weeks to set up a temporary state-paid system, but that timeline accelerated, and now the first state-paid aid could reach Alaskans this week.
Legislative leaders applauded the governor’s announcement.
“Alaskans shouldn’t have to worry about how they’ll feed their families because of a federal stalemate,” Stevens said in a news release. “I appreciate and support the Governor’s declaration to ensure that Alaskans are not left behind because of inaction in Washington, D.C. Congress must reconcile their differences and act quickly so Alaskans, and all Americans, can continue to have the support and stability to care for their families.”
House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, said she applauds the governor “for his swift and decisive action.”
“I certainly want to thank Gov. Dunleavy and the Senate President for rolling up their sleeves alongside of myself on behalf of the House Majority caucus and coming up with a short-term solution,” Edgmon said. “This issue, clearly, was code red. … We’re immensely relieved that we have a solution at hand, albeit temporary, and we’ve got fingers crossed that the federal shutdown is going to come to a close here sooner than later.”
The governor’s announcement came as a federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to pay at least a portion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits to the 42 million eligible Americans by this Wednesday.
Last Friday, Alaska legislators from both parties expressed their concern about what they called an “impending statewide hunger crisis” in a letter to the state’s congressional delegation.
According to Dunleavy’s letter to lawmakers, the state’s disaster relief funds are not sufficient to cover the cost of the food aid, so the state will transfer $10 million from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Village Safe Water and Wastewater Infrastructure program.
The Legislature will be asked to supplement the state’s disaster relief fund and return the money to its original appropriation in the next legislative session.
Meanwhile, the federal government shutdown continued Monday, with Democrats unwilling to vote for a Republican-proposed plan to restart the government, and Republicans unwilling to either relax filibuster rules or amend their restart plan in order to attract Democratic votes.
James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. A graduate of Virginia Tech, he is married and has a daughter, owns a house in Juneau and has a small sled dog named Barley.
Claire Stremple began reporting in Alaska in 2018 as a public radio reporter in Haines. Since then, she has reported across the state on the health environment, education and justice beats. She was awarded the Alaska Press Club’s Public Service Award in 2022 and recognized with an A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2024. Previously, she was the Managing Editor of the newsroom at KTOO Public Media. She lives in Juneau with her dog, Maya.
Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
