WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) challenged Republicans on Wednesday to vote on a bill that funds food stamp programs while refusing to provide the votes necessary to reopen the government in full.
The Keep SNAP Funded Act, introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) last week, already has ten GOP senators and Democrat Peter Welch of Vermont as co-sponsors — but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has resisted calls for smaller, separate spending bills after Schumer and his party voted 13 times to keep the government shut down from Oct. 1.
“Just weeks ago, Trump’s own US Department of Agriculture confirmed in writing that contingency funds — about $6 billion in emergency reserves — were ‘available to fund participant benefits,’” Schumer declared in a floor speech before affirming he and other Dems would vote for Hawley’s bill.
“Then suddenly after USDA said it, Trump ordered the Department of Agriculture to rip up the contingency plan, literally delete it from their website,” he claimed, “and told them not to use emergency funds.”
“No explanation, no justification, just plain cruelty from a man who only serves himself — Donald Trump is picking politics over the lives of hungry kids,” the Democratic leader added. “He is weaponizing hunger, turning millions of children, seniors and veterans into political pawns to score points in his shutdown fight.”
The shutdown began after Senate Democrats blocked a stopgap measure funding the government at current levels until Nov. 21. Only three members of their caucus have supported that bill: Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and independent Angus King of Maine.
On Sept. 30, the USDA released a Lapse of Funding Plan that stated “multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year” — but had taken the document off the website as of mid-October.
A USDA spokesperson shared a fact sheet noting that contingency funding is designated for programs like Disaster SNAP, “which provides food purchasing benefits for individuals in disaster areas, including natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, that can come on quickly without notice.”
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Any money transferred from non-contingency funds would also affect the USDA’s Child Nutrition Programs, the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program and Child and Adult Care Feeding Program, the fact sheet read.
Programs like Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are also getting that money. A separate bill by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), which Schumer is pushing, would fully fund both SNAP and WIC.
At least $23 billion has been set aside to keep nutrition programs running during the shutdown, according to the USDA.
But the Trump administration has maintained it lacks the legal authority to tap into any extra contingency funding for regular monthly SNAP benefits, which Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said would amount to $9.2 billion just in November.
“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” the USDA spokesperson said. “Continue to hold out for the Far-Left wing of the party or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive timely WIC and SNAP allotments.”
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday about the Hawley bill, Thune said scheduling votes for “one-off” bills on SNAP or other federal benefits “begs the larger question: How long … is this going to drag on?”
“I think the quickest way to end it is to just open everything up, and then everybody gets paid, and you’re not picking winners and losers or having to explain to this group why you open it up for this group,” the Republican leader added. “I mean, that just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Democrats have committed to the funding fight in hopes of getting an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies passed under former President Joe Biden, though congressional Republican leaders have maintained that will be addressed in a separate bill before the end of the year.
But even some who previously stuck with their party in that effort are now breaking ranks. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) on Wednesday called for Senate Democrats to end the shutdown — after voting against the stopgap bill in the House on Sept. 19 — so long as the ObamaCare subsidies also receive a vote.
“I think it’s a very fair deal,” Gottheimer said on Fox News‘ “America’s Newsroom.”
“Open the government and let’s just vote on extending these premiums for a year or more,” he added. “I don’t understand what’s so hard about that. And, by the way, Senator Thune has offered that … we can actually have a vote on extending these premiums.”
Open enrollment for Obamacare also kicks off Nov. 1.
