New York sues 'hellbent' Trump administration over SNAP benefits

And U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is publishing a book.

Good afternoon — It’s Tuesday and National First Responders Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• The federal government will cut off SNAP benefits this weekend amid the shutdown. Here’s what’s happening in New York and in politics.

• U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik says she’s publishing a book next spring and a new poll Tuesday shows her neck-and-neck with Hochul.

• A new bill seeks to collect data on food insecurity in New York that’s no longer being tracked by the federal government.

• This Week in New York History: The New York City Subway, the polio vaccine and the time clock.

Names in today’s CapCon: Hakeem Jeffries, Ed Cox, Kathy Hochul, Tish James, Rachel May, Elise Stefanik, Michelle Hinchey

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(MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images)

⚖️ What New York is doing as the SNAP deadline approaches and why it matters

There are nearly 3 million people in New York who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed themselves and their families.

Those benefits, as you may know, are not expected to be funded by the federal government beyond this month. SNAP recipients won’t receive them for November.

That’s because of the ongoing shutdown of the federal government, which has put elected officials on both sides of the aisle in a tough spot.

Democrats and Republicans are playing a game of chicken with each other.

Democrats are betting that Nov. 1 will be an inflection point in their fight to revive health care tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year.

That’s because open enrollment begins on federal and state health care exchanges. People who previously benefited from the tax credits will see how much their premiums rise.

Democrats are predicting that those increased costs will place public pressure on Republicans to extend the tax credits, ending the shutdown.

“Reality will strike for tens of millions of Americans who receive their health insurance both from the Affordable Care Act tax credits and beyond that their health care costs are about to skyrocket,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said Tuesday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries this week (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

But the SNAP situation could undercut those efforts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed this week that the agency would not use its contingency funding to continue benefits in November.

That spurred a new lawsuit Tuesday against the agency from a coalition of states, including New York, to force the release of those funds, which they argue are required by statute to be used in situations exactly like this.