Both parties say cutting SNAP for 42 million is wrong – but can’t agree on a fix
More than 40 million low-income Americans are about to lose access to SNAP food assistance on Nov. 1, despite there being two funding methods available to Congress and the White House. There is unanimous agreement on Capitol Hill that our leaders are putting the nation’s poor in a bad situation.
Here are two quotes that summarize the two parties’ speaking points:
“The Democrats could open this up in five minutes,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.
“Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The fight over SNAP food assistance reached a fever pitch after the Trump administration said it cannot use a contingency fund with more than $5 billion in it to keep the program going. Democrats contend that’s false. They are accusing the U.S. Department of Agriculture of removing a document from its website that shows they can use the money and already have.
“Republicans can fund it now, and they’re using these people as hostages, plain and simple,” Schumer told reporters Wednesday.
“This is the bulls–t. Taking these plans down to try to lie to the American people and justify why it’s okay for people to go hungry,” Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said.
Based on 2024’s spending levels, SNAP costs the government approximately $8.3 billion per month. Even if the $5 billion in the contingency fund were used, it would only last two to three weeks without being rationed.
“All these half measures are really just taking attention away from an irrational basis for shutting down the government that the Democrats own, I think, for the first time in my political career,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. “We have got to get the scale of the budget of the federal government in place.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the Keep SNAP Funded Act to ensure the food assistance program has all the money it needs until the shutdown is over. The bill has 11 Republican sponsors, which means it has the votes to pass the Senate with unanimous Democratic support. But Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not put it on the schedule for a vote, and no one has tried to approve it via unanimous consent.
“They’re not calling it up because the House isn’t here to pass it,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said, referring to the fact that the House has been out of session since Sept. 19.
“The House would have to come here; they probably would have to vote on the Epstein files, but they’re choosing to let kids go hungry instead of having to vote on the Epstein files,” Klobuchar continued. “There’s no doubt about it. They have been out for six weeks on vacation.”
Republicans have a rather simple counterargument: Democrats should vote to fund the government. If Democrats were willing to approve a short-term spending deal, Republicans say none of this would be an issue.
“It’s kind of frustrating that you know that the Democrats feel like this is a leverage point for them. It’s not a leverage point. It’s dealing with people’s lives,” Mullin said.
The government has been shut down for a month. Congress and the White House are no closer to a deal now than they were on day one.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
