Gov. Bill Lee won’t dip into the state’s $2.1 billion Rainy Day Fund to back Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits relied on by 690,000 Tennesseans.

Typically, SNAP funding is guaranteed by the federal government and issued to recipients via an electronic debit system overseen by the Tennessee Department of Human Services. With a government shutdown in D.C. now entering its fourth week, some saw state intervention as a potential backstop to guarantee SNAP benefits when those lapse on Nov. 1. Republican Gov. Bill Lee says that is operationally impossible.

“The SNAP program is federally funded and operated, and Tennessee is unable to utilize state dollars to provide the benefit, as states do not have a mechanism to load benefits onto customer cards,” reads a statem

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