Maryland governor on government shutdown, healthcare and possible redistricting

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about to discuss the government shutdown's effects on people in the state of Maryland, food stamps and SNAP benefits.

According to Brennan, about 700,000 people in Maryland rely on food stamps, and the Supreme Court put a stay in place regarding food stamps Friday.

This prompted her to ask Gov. Moore if he knows whether the money will be available to Maryland residents to buy food, to which the governor said:

"We don't know, and that's why we're not waiting. It is why, just in the past few days, I have authorized over $10 million that's going towards heating assistance for people in the state of Maryland. Over $10 million has gone to our Maryland food banks that we have made public transportation free for all of our federal workers, because they are, in many cases, are going to work and not being paid. And I have also authorized $62 million to go towards SNAP to make sure that SNAP is not going to be interrupted for the people of Maryland for as long as we can, despite the fact that we are waiting for the President of the United States to finally do his job. We are watching the president who is literally breaking the law so people can starve, but we're not going to sit there and tolerate in our state."

During the interview, Brennan and Moore talked about healthcare, with Brennan reporting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) offered to end the shutdown if Republicans agree to a one-year extension of Obamacare healthcare subsidies, but Republicans said it's a nonstarter.

This led Brennan to ask the governor if he would tell Democrats to take the vote, open the government and keep negotiating healthcare, and Moore said:

"I want the government reopened now. There is no state that is dealing with more of an impact from this than the state of Maryland. We have over 260,000 federal workers within our state. That even before the shutdown, Donald Trump had fired over 15,000 Maryland workers, federal workers, more than any other state in this country. But I also know that saying that a prerequisite for having the federal government open shouldn't be kicking up premiums by 90%, by kicking people off of healthcare. There's a barbaric nature to this ask and this request, particularly when we're watching how the Trump administration, they have the White House, the House and the Senate. They can get this deal done by just simply making a phone call, but they're allowing this pain to exist."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Moore talked about the possible redistricting in Maryland after California residents voted in favor of Prop 50.

When asked if he thinks the state of Maryland is "drawn in an unfair way right now," and Moore said:

" I think that the reason that I ordered the Governor's Redistricting Advisory Commission is because I want to make sure that we can have a bipartisan group being able to look at the maps in the state of Maryland...this is something that happens every single decade. And if other states are going to have this process and go through this- go through this journey of identifying whether or not they have fair maps in a mid-decade cycle, then so should Maryland. I'm just not sure why we should be playing by a different set of rules than Texas, or than Florida, or than Ohio or all these other places."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Moore, click here.