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News 12 Staff

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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power and Politics. I'm joined by the Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff. Welcome. Thanks Mark. Thanks for having me. Yeah, nice to have you. Hey, let's talk this week a little bit about what's uh coming out of Washington. President Trump wanting to withhold some SNAP funds from Democratic states like Connecticut. Your reaction to this and can the president do this? Well, this is what we see. We end up seeing more chaos, more confusion, more cruelty, uh, from the man who sits in the Oval Office, and cruelty knows no bounds. And what we're gonna see is, you know, potentially, uh, hundreds of thousands of people potentially lose benefits to food. Uh, we have never ever seen in American history a time when a president of the United States was willfully starving his own people and that's really a problem, uh, in a number of ways. It's a, it's a morality problem. It's a problem for, for folks who don't know if they're gonna get their next meal. Uh, it's a problem for food banks and food pantries. It's a problem for stores because there are a lot of the stores, they rely on, um, those benefits because that's what helps keep them open, especially in, in food deserts that we have. Um, in the neighborhood bodegas and other neighborhood stores, uh, that money does help to keep those stores running. But, you know, uh, what we see is, uh, a person who just is callous and doesn't care about the American people. Whether he can do it or not, that will be up to the courts. I don't always have a lot of, uh, faith in our Supreme Court, uh, but our Attorney General William Tong has been doing a great job in fighting this on the district and the appellate level, and we, he has been winning, so. Um, the more that we do this, uh, take these things to court, the better. Um, but a president should not be, uh, going after blue states or red states. Uh, he represents all Americans regardless of party, and I can guarantee you that some of the people who, uh, rely on, uh, SNAP benefits on food, um, voted for him, and, uh, we also, you know, just don't want to see people go hungry. Now I know that uh one of the things that came out of the recent special session uh was some funding that's been put aside uh for situations like this. Is that enough and, and how long could that last? Yeah, well, it's $500 million. Uh, we worked with the governor and the house as well to, uh, to provide extra funding and that funding comes out of our surplus. Um, so it's not taking away from anything else, um, but that $500 million is, is designed to help people with food or with heating assistance, um, healthcare, um, potentially homelessness as well. I mean, again, every day we wake up, we just don't know what's going to come out of Washington. So, um, while maybe the food could get taken care of, uh, we also see that there could be about 70 or $80 million in funding, uh, for homeless services, which could literally put people out on the streets. Um, we have Uh, low income, low income heating assistance that we're not sure if that money is coming as well, so that impacts a lot of senior citizens. I mean, again, this is what we saw in that uh big bill that they passed and signed on July 4th HR 1, the reconciliation bill. It is the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich that the American, uh, the American public has ever seen. Um, it should make everybody cringe at that kind of a policy. There's no reason for it, there's no need for it. And you know, you asked if if Connecticut can uh can sustain uh all these filling in all these holes. Uh, the answer is no, no state can. Thankfully, we have a surplus. A lot of other states right now don't have surpluses. They're in deficit mode because the economy is slowing down because of the policies that we're seeing coming out of Washington and uh so. We're, we're, you know, keeping our fingers crossed, but it's, it will never be able to fill all those holes, especially as those Medicaid cuts come forward in a couple of years. Um, we're gonna, you gonna see bigger problems, but more immediately with the Affordable Care Act, with subsidies that will increase people's mostly middle class premiums, could be. By thousands of dollars a month. That's about $700 million per year, or it could be, um, for, for the state of Connecticut. And it's a lot of money, and it's just no way for us to be able to, uh, to, to, when you get into Medicaid, uh, ACA and everything else, it's a lot of money and there's no way for us to float in all those blanks. Now, one of the biggest things, uh, of course, to come out of the special session too is a new affordable housing bill. Many Republicans don't agree with it. Why do you like it and now that the governor signed it, what's next? Well, housing is an issue all over the nation, and frankly, it's a worldwide problem. No matter where you go in the world, you hear people talk about housing and, uh, but you know, we can impact ourselves here in the state of Connecticut. Um, it's an issue all over the place, whether it's senior citizens who want to downsize and maybe be in a place other than their homes, or it's a recent college graduate who can't find their first apartment because it's just too expensive. And including, uh, it's very difficult these days for people even to afford their first home because prices are, are so high. So a lot of it is supply and demand, and it's a, it's really about uh building more housing, uh, being smart about it, uh, building it in places where it's uh close to highways, close to trains, rebuilding your downtowns, but having every single community be a part of the solution. This is not something that Uh, is, is tailored or, you know, should be a solution for just Norwalk or Stanford, uh, but really every community has a responsibility to build more housing, um, in their, in their towns. So, you know, we had the governor who vetoed the bill earlier this year. We passed a new bill. It's about 85% of it's the same, uh, which is good. We have some, uh, new things in there which I think are, are what you're actually what Senate Democrats fought for, which is extra funding for school construction and For, uh, infrastructure like sewer lines, but, you know, working with Jason Rojas, the House Majority Leader and the governor's office, you know, we got it done and it is a huge, huge need. We need to continue to push on this issue. I think the Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue. Um, again, you talk to average folks about housing, they tell you how expensive it is. In fact, I got 2 or 3 emails just this week about people who are in a real housing crisis, and we just don't have enough for people, especially on, on the affordable side. Thank you. Thanks. Well, new SNAP requirements went into effect this week.

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Well, it's now harder to qualify for Snap food benefits. Stricter eligibility requirements just kicked in. News 12 Connecticut's John Craven tells us how it could impact you. Food banks like this could get a lot busier. That's because new snap rules could throw 36,000 people off the program right here in Connecticut. Food banks could see another rush because it just got harder to qualify for snap food stamps. Starting Monday, parents with kids 14 and older, those without a home, and veterans must spend 80 hours a month working, taking job training classes, or volunteering. In all, about 36,000 people could lose their benefits. The state Department of Social Services is trying to get those numbers down, looking at technology changes, process changes, expanding our communications to let individuals know of what the new requirements are. The new restrictions are part of Congress's one big beautiful bill. I'm going to be fighting this week and before the end of this new year to eliminate those restrictions. Here in Connecticut, lawmakers just approved a half billion dollar emergency fund to combat snap food cuts. We have up to $500 million that the legislature gave me discretion to make sure that people. Uncle hungry in a case like this. All right, you probably still have lots of questions about these new snap rules. No fear. Just pull out your phone, open up the News 12 app, and click on this story. We have lots of answers for you right here in Stanford, John Craven, News 12, Connecticut. Meantime, many shoppers are using buy now pay later services this holiday season. Those are apps like Klarna or Afterpay, where shoppers can get the item they want now and make a series of payments over the following weeks. Attorney General William Tong is launching an inquiry into the 6 of the largest buy now pay later companies to see if they are following consumer protection laws. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Suddall. Thanks for watching.

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Former New Brittan Mayor Erin Stewart and state Sen. Majority Leader Bob Duff join the show.

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