During Monday’s press conference, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) spoke about federal food program cuts.
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00:00Has there been any headway made in getting some of the federal food programs that have been being cut, getting those restored, or do you anticipate having to go to court?
00:15There's a really successful program that is administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where they basically fund the work of 189 farms across Pennsylvania that produce dairy and meat and poultry and so much wonderful produce for our food banks, including the Pittsburgh Food Bank, where I think the LG was last week, if I'm not mistaken, and other food banks all across Pennsylvania.
00:41The United States Department of Agriculture sent us a letter about a month ago saying that that program no longer met their objectives, and they suspended that.
00:51Under federal law, we have an appeal right to try and get that money back.
00:56I filed an appeal through our State Department of Agriculture, and we are waiting on a response from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
01:03I know the congressman's been trying to be helpful to get those federal dollars that are legally owed to us back.
01:11The final thing I'll say on this is this isn't some hope of mine that we would fund our farmers and our food bank.
01:18We had a three-year contract that the federal government broke in month four of that three-year contract.
01:25And so I know I'm a former attorney general and a lawyer, but you don't need a law degree to know the ancient legal doctrine of a deal's a deal.
01:33They made a deal with Pennsylvania.
01:34They've got to honor that deal, and I'm fighting for every dollar that's owed to Pennsylvania.