NASHVILLE, TN - As the countdown continues to over 690,000 Tennesseans losing access to essential SNAP benefits due to the federal government's unwillingness to tap reserve funding during the shutdown, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is nowhere to be found. On Saturday morning, federal funding for SNAP benefits will expire, leaving one in 10 Tennessee families without the means to put food on their table.

While other states and municipalities across the country are taking prompt, necessary action for their affected residents, including some run by Republicans, Gov. Lee has done nothing but regurgitate the politically partisan talking points of corrupt DC politicians and re-post a web link to community food banks that is already publicly available on other websites. Lee also declined to cancel or cut short his taxpayer-funded tour of Asia to return home and assist Tennessee families facing this impending SNAP crisis.

Today, State Representative John Ray Clemmons invited Tennesseans to join him in donating to local food banks so they can stock up on badly needed resources. Clemmons, who is chair of the House Democratic Caucus, says the state has to do its part to help our children, elderly, and disabled Tennesseans who rely on SNAP benefits for food and nutrition:

"Our local food banks like Second Harvest, The Branch of Nashville, and others do amazing work every day, but there is no way that they alone can fill the void being created by our federal and state governments' refusal to use their vast financial reserves to prevent this SNAP funding freeze. Normally, SNAP recipients rely on food banks to augment their SNAP benefits to feed their families. By intentionally refusing to fund SNAP, they are placing an impossible burden on the shoulders of food banks that are still reeling from recently having their funding and resources cut by a federal government that also slashed the SNAP program by $186 billion in the Big Beautiful Bill Act.

It is utterly despicable for Governor Lee to do absolutely nothing to help those in need except re-post a web link that's already publicly available on other websites. This empty gesture, while he and an inexplicable amount of his staff party it up in Asia on taxpayers' dimes, posting pictures having a great time in Tokyo bars on social media. The extent to which this governor and his administration are tone deaf and out of touch with Tennessee families is appalling. While I am sure it must have been nice to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths, it unfortunately blinds Governor Lee and others in his administration to the very real challenges facing most Tennessee families daily."