US Capitol. (Photo: Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Democrats in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday urged GOP leaders to pass legislation to expand critical food assistance to the most vulnerable Americans during the ongoing government shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats would support a standalone bill introduced by Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley. And New Mexico Democratic Senator Ben Ray Luján attempted to unanimously pass a bill to fund two major nutrition assistance programs.
“Let’s end this hunger crisis before it starts,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune opposed Luján’s proposal and the government shutdown entered its fifth week, with lawmakers from both parties showing no signs of the agreement needed to reopen the government in time to avoid endangering 42 million people exposed to the risk of loss on Saturday, they are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP beneficiaries, which cover low-income people, children and people with disabilities, are scheduled to receive payments on November 1. But the shutdown and the Trump administration’s claim that it cannot make emergency funds available to cover the cost of November benefits mean many will be left without them.
Democrats held several news conferences on Wednesday, the 29th day of the shutdown, expressing concerns about the situation loss of SNAP benefits and sharply criticizes the United States Department of Agriculture for not tapping to its multi-year emergency fund to approve food aid for November.
This move caused countries to scramble to provide aid, strained local food banks and resulted in a lawsuit filed this week by dozens of government officials seeking to force the agency to release SNAP funds.
Schumer, a Democrat from New York, urged Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, to bring Hawley’s bill to a vote in the Senate. The bill would fund SNAP if funding expires.
Thune refuses to provide standalone accounts
Thune, however, declined to consider bills that would fund individual programs during the shutdown. Instead, he urged Democrats to approve the House-passed GOP measure to temporarily reopen the government.
“We’re not going to pick winners and losers,” he said after opposing Lujan’s bill. “It is time to support everyone who is feeling the pain of this closure.”
Thune told the Senate he would only hold another vote on the House-passed GOP stopgap measure if Senate Democrats “tell me they have enough votes to fund the government.”
This week the Senate for the 13th timedid not meet the 60-vote threshold to proceed with a measure to extend government funding until November 21.
Democrats tried to vote against the short-term financing bill initiate negotiations on tax breaks which expires at the end of the year for people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act platform. Republicans say those talks could begin once the government receives funding.
Open enrollment in the ACA marketplace begins on November 1 in most states. Democrats predicted that when people start getting health insurance quotes and see much higher prices contributions from your own pocketwill force Republicans to negotiate tax breaks.
“We are days away from a health care crisis,” Schumer said.
Shutdown will become ‘very real’
House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a morning news conference that a government shutdown “becomes a very real possibility” on Saturday, when the federal government will no longer pay SNAP benefits.
“You’re talking about tens of millions of Americans at risk of starvation if Senate Democrats continue this stunt,” Johnson said.
Louisiana Republican who voted against the interim expense bill which ended its 2018-2019 shutdown, repeatedly called on rank-and-file Democratic senators to “do the right thing.”
“I think Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are irredeemable at this point,” Johnson said, referring to the top Democrats in both chambers. “I have resigned from leadership. So we are trying to appeal to a handful of moderates or centrists who care more about the American people and will put the people’s interests ahead of their own and do the right thing in the Senate.”
Johnson also condemned lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general asking a federal judge to require SNAP funds to be paid during the government shutdown.
“Instead of a simple vote to fund the government, as Senate Democrats have had a dozen opportunities to do so now, Democratic attorneys general are suing the federal government in an attempt to force the flow of SNAP benefits despite the government shutdown and despite the fact that there is no money to pay for it,” Johnson said.
SNAP Emergency Fund Freeze Contested
During an afternoon news conference, Luján held up a printed copy of the USDA’s Sept. 30 plant shutdown contingency plan, arguing that the agency’s refusal to operate emergency funds for SNAP beneficiaries was nonsense.
He criticized the agency for removing its own contingency plan from its website, which acknowledges that if funding lapses, USDA will operate its roughly $6 billion contingency funds to cover SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.
“It’s bullshit to reject these plans to lie to the American people and justify why people might go hungry,” Luján said.
Luján Bill that he tried to get approval by unanimous consent would fund SNAP during the government shutdown, as well as the USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Democrats are willing to support Lujan’s bill or Hawley’s bill. She added that she and several other Democrats plan to co-sponsor Hawley’s bill. So far, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont is the only Democrat to co-sponsor the bill.
The 10 Senate Republicans who supported Hawley’s bill include Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted of Ohio, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and John Cornyn of Texas.
Colorado Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse argued during an afternoon news conference that Trump administration officials “made a conscious and deliberate decision to suspend SNAP benefits.”
“It is outrageous that the Trump administration can allocate $40 billion to bail out Argentina and yet refuses to spend the money Congress allocated to feed hungry families in America,” Neguse said.
Minnesota Sen. Angie Craig, ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, said the SNAP emergency fund law “is clear and unambiguous” and that “Trump’s actions show a pattern of callous disregard for America’s hungry seniors, children and veterans.”
Craig said the USDA should operate the contingency fund to pay most of the November benefits. The department should then operate some of the $23 billion in another account, called Section 32, to cover the rest of the costs, Craig said.
Craig also dismissed criticism of SNAP, saying it provides about $6.20 a day for food.
“That doesn’t even cover one trip to the grocery store a month for most American families, especially as the administration has launched a trade war that is raising costs for everyone in our country,” Craig said. “So that’s what it’s all about.”
The factory closure is expected to hurt the economy
Due to the implications for federal programs such as SNAP and delayed payments for federal employees, The ongoing suspension is expected to have a negative impact on the economy, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Written by Principal Phillip L. Swagel eight-page letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, D-Texas, that the phasing out of funding “will delay federal spending and have a negative impact on the economy, which will mostly, but not completely, reverse once the economic shutdown ends.”
The federal government spent $33 billion less than it did in the first four weeks of the shutdown. A funding pause lasting six weeks would reduce spending by $54 billion, and if it lasts eight weeks, the federal government will put $74 billion less into the economy.
“These amounts include delayed expenses for employee compensation, goods and services, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” Swagel wrote. “CBO expects that as appropriations resume, expenditures that did not occur during the shutdown will be made up.”
Swagel cautioned that the forecasts “are subject to significant uncertainty.
“The impact of the shutdown will depend on the decisions the administration makes during the shutdown, including decisions about which executive branch activities will continue and which will be suspended.”
