This week, New York and two dozen states sued the Trump administration over its plan to stop funding SNAP during the shutdown effective tomorrow. Governor Kathy Hochul said New York would use $106 million in state funds for emergency food assistance for food banks and meal programs. Hochul appeared at a Harlem food pantry yesterday declaring that the looming suspension of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a moral crisis for the country. If the government shutdown is not resolved by tomorrow, as many as 3 million New Yorkers and 160,000 Long Islanders will be among 42 million Americans at risk of missing the benefits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced.

Declaring a “food emergency," Hochul said no state can “backfill" to make up for federal dollars put into the program, which she said was about $650 million monthly in New York. But she said $106 million from state coffers will be dedicated for emergency food assistance in the state. That would provide over 56 million meals to stock food pantries and distribution centers, she said.

In Washington, D.C., New York's Democratic senators — Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand — attacked President Donald Trump for not allowing nearly $5 billion in emergency contingency funds previously designated for the food assistance program to be used during the shutdown.

Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was accompanied by five New York House Republicans — including Long Island’s Andrew Garbarino and Nick LaLota — at a simultaneous second event at the U.S. Capitol. He called on Schumer and Senate Democrats to avoid the food-funding interruption by simply helping Senate Republicans advance a House-passed bill to reopen government.

The GOP news conference was intended to have a New York bent. Johnson opened by accusing Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — both of Brooklyn — of “desperately” putting their own political survival ahead of the nation by appeasing a Marxist and rising “radical socialist wind” in their own city and state.

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The battle over the timing of local elections has moved to federal court. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the New York State Republican Committee, joined by three counties and eight Long Island towns — including Riverhead — filed a federal lawsuit yesterday in Central Islip challenging New York’s Even-Year Election Law. Also listed as plaintiffs are the Nassau and Suffolk Republican committees and 16 Republican town and county officials and candidates. The suit marks the latest chapter in a months-long fight over whether the state can move most local elections to even-numbered years — a change Republicans argue erodes home rule. The plaintiffs argue that the law violates the First Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by suppressing local political speech, increasing racial polarization, and undermining the independence of self-government. The Even Year Election Law, passed by the State Legislature in June 2023, was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul that December. The law aligns most local elections outside of New York City with federal and state elections held in even-numbered years. Democrats who control both chambers of the Legislature and pushed for its adoption say the measure is intended to boost voter participation in local elections. Supporters of the law argue that higher voter turnout in even-numbered years — when state and federal offices are on the ballot — will mean more people voting in local contests than is typical in odd-numbered years, when turnout is a fraction of that seen in even years. Opponents don’t see it that way at all. The measure was vehemently opposed by Republicans, who argued it was an attack on local control in counties outside of New York City, in an effort to influence the outcome of local elections in traditional GOP strongholds....