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(Bloomberg) — Senators failed this week to resolve a standoff over funding food aid during the government shutdown and plan to head home Thursday for a long weekend, leaving millions of low-income Americans struggling to purchase groceries starting Saturday.
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Nov. 1 will mark the first-ever lapse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and make as many as 42 million food stamp recipients a casualty in the month-long fight over funding the government.
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Republicans say the fix is simple: Democrats must drop their blockade of a stopgap funding bill, which they’ve used as leverage to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, and allow the government to reopen.
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Democrats counter that the White House could use contingency money to keep SNAP funded, as has been done during previous shutdowns, and is illegally refusing to do so. Republican leaders, meanwhile, have blocked legislation to fund food stamp and infant formula programs during the shutdown, saying that picking and choosing priorities would be unfair to unpaid federal workers.
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“We’re not going to allow them to pick winners and losers,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Democrats.
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At the same time, President Donald Trump has found ways to pay the military during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1.
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Republicans are banking that the SNAP cuts will force an end to the shutdown, and it’s not clear how long Democrats can hold out. Food aid is among the party’s core priorities and affect a bloc of voters that tends to vote Democratic.
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But Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, like most others in his party, has remained resolute and refused to bend on the health care subsidies.
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“Democrats will not stand by while Republicans manufacture a hunger crisis,” Schumer said Wednesday.
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Floor Fight
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The food stamp battle came to a head on Wednesday when Thune blocked Democrat Ben Ray Lujan’s bill to fund SNAP and infant formula programs, calling the legislation a “transparent admission” that Democrats have no intention to reopen the government anytime soon.
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Lujan said the Trump administration was purposely “weaponizing hunger” to get Democrats to cave. Trump, he said, has found $20 billion to help Argentina but won’t tap existing funds to feed Americans.
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One Republican, Josh Hawley of Missouri, has offered a more narrowly tailored bill to address the SNAP shortfall, but that too has been blocked by Thune. Schumer has said that Democrats would all vote for the Hawley bill.
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“My goal is just to make sure people don’t go hungry,” said Hawley. “The only way to do that I see is to bring a bill to the floor.”
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Even if Thune were to relent and the Senate passes the Hawley bill, it’s chances in the House would be slim. House Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the chamber out of session since Sept. 19 to force the Senate to accept the House-passed spending bill.
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No End in Sight
English (US)