The following is the transcript of the interview with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Nov. 2, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey, who joins us this morning from Boston. Governor, welcome to Face The Nation.
GOVERNOR MAURA HEALEY: Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A family of four receiving food stamps makes $31,000 or less per year. That program gives less than $200 a month to one in eight Americans. It’s 42 million people. I know you joined this lawsuit to try to sue the administration to get them to use emergency funding to pay for food stamps during the government shutdown. Given what happened with the courts Friday, will food stamp payments be going out this week? It’s your state that has to administer, administer the program, right?
GOV. HEALEY: Yeah, I don’t know Margaret because the President hasn’t said whether he’s going to approve the release of those contingency funds. I mean, the, the impact of this is just devastating. One in eight Americans, you say, I have about one in seven Massachusetts residents who are on SNAP. I was at food pantries yesterday. I mean people across our state do not want to see people go hungry, but people woke up on Saturday morning not having access to their benefits. The reason we sued, Margaret, 28 states, and I’m glad and grateful to the AGs for getting the favorable ruling. It basically tells the President do what you’re supposed to do, which is use the contingency funds that have been set aside for exactly this purpose, when there is a shutdown among other things, release those funds, continue the SNAP payments to our states. I strongly urge that. I hope it happens immediately on Monday. People in this country should not go hungry, and I think Americans don’t want to see their brothers and sisters go hungry.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that federal judge in Rhode Island ordered full payments by Monday or partial SNAP payments by Wednesday. On another network, the Treasury Secretary was asked if, if the administration would do just that, and he said, could be. Practically speaking how do you, how quickly can you turn it on? I mean, if that comes through Wednesday, do people in Massachusetts get to eat on Thursday?
GOV. HEALEY: No. I mean the problem, Margaret, with what the President has done is that he cut this off and it takes a few days to load up those cards. I mean anywhere between two and five days. I will tell you what I am doing as governor because I’ve got to protect my residents. I’ve got to work with others to make sure that they are fed. We’ve advanced funding to our food pantries. We stood up a United Way fund, and already, you know, 3 million, I think, in contributions have come through this week. We have seen an incredible outpouring of volunteers. I was at food pantries yesterday, and the turnout is something. And, you know, but, but this is not sustainable. Right? I mean we cannot continue along this path, which is why he needs to release those funds, as at least one court told him to do, right now. As soon as possible, because it takes us time to load up those cards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So here’s how President Trump described the shutdown impact Friday. Take a listen.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: All they have to do is say the government is open, and that’s the end of it. And you know, largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats. But I’m President, I want to help everybody. I want to help Democrats and Republicans. But when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look, it’s largely Democrats. They’re hurting their own people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Doesn’t he have a point that your party is responsible for some of this pain?
GOV. HEALEY: Absolutely not and, frankly, that’s a really insulting comment. You know, Margaret, I’ve got 21,000 veterans, men and women who have served our country, who are SNAP beneficiaries in Massachusetts, who had their benefits turned off, who face hunger right now. To be clear, you want to know who SNAP beneficiaries are in this country? They’re our seniors, they’re kids, and they’re people with disabilities. They live in every state, in every city and town around this country. And for the President to even suggest something like that or to say something like that is insulting. And this is the part, this is the problem with, with D.C. You showed the poll, right? I mean, at the end of the day, the President and Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, and, you know, Mike Johnson hasn’t had these guys back in session, I think, but for 12 out of 100 of the last days. So get back to Washington, get back to the table. Sort this out. Americans want to see that people are fed. They want to make sure that they have access to child care, because health, Head Start’s getting turned off too. And they don’t want to see their health premiums go up. I mean, that’s what’s happening right now, and the impact is being felt everywhere
MARGARET BRENNAN: We checked and the top five states or districts with the highest percentage of residents who use food stamps are New Mexico, D.C., Louisiana, Oregon and Oklahoma. Two of those states are ruby red and voted for President Trump in last election. I think that’s what you’re pointing to in terms of insult, but on the substance of why we are in this shut down, Democrats have refused to sign on to a clean government funding bill. On that point, don’t Democrats bear some responsibility?
GOV. HEALEY: What Democrats in Congress did is stand with hundreds of thousands, millions of Americans right now who are seeing their premiums go up. I’ve got people in Massachusetts who just got notices because of the expiration of the subsidies. They’re going to see their premiums rise as much as $20,000. American families can’t afford that, you know. And I’m focused on economic hardship and what I can do to protect my people and I think most of us are in our states as governors, which is why the folks in D.C. need to get back to work. Mike Johnson needs to call his members back because how are you going to get a negotiation if you’re not even in D.C., right? You got to get back to D.C. The president has got to give a clear directive to Republicans that they need to reopen government because Americans are suffering and continue to suffer every single day.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Governor, Healy, thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be back in a moment.