Canned goods on grocery store shelves. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
WASHINGTON – The risks of the ongoing government shutdown rose Monday as the U.S. Department of Agriculture reiterated its position that November food subsidies could not be paid and a federal workers union pleaded with lawmakers to pass an emergency solution.
As the government shutdown entered its 27th day, President Donald Trump’s administration sought to augment pressure on Senate Democrats to pass House Republicans’ proposed stopgap government funding bill by refusing to employ USDA resources to extend critical food assistance to the most vulnerable Americans.
The USDA confirmed this over the weekend will not follow its own emergency plan — which the ministry removed from its website — to draw on its multi-year emergency fund to cover food aid for more than 42 million people in November.
The department also pinned a blistering message on its website blaming Democrats for the loss of benefits, and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson urged Democrats to approve an emergency funding measure to restore food aid.
Democrats voted against the GOP short-term spending bill to focus attention on and force negotiations over tax credits that expire at the end of the year for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.
“The bottom line is that the well has run dry,” reads the banner on the USDA website. “At this point, benefits will not be provided on November 1. We are approaching a tipping point for Senate Democrats.”
The banner falsely stated that Democrats’ only goal was to provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants and transgender patients.
Reverse processing in the event of a SNAP emergency
But the move represents a reversal from the administration’s own policy, laid out in a contingency plan dated Sept. 30 on the eve of the State Newsroom closure reported on Friday.
The plan detailed how the agency would employ the emergency fund provided by Congress to continue services. The fund has about $6 billion, about two-thirds of monthly SNAP benefits, meaning the USDA would still need to reallocate another $3 billion to cover the rest for November.
Hundreds of Democratic lawmakers and the top Republican appropriator in the Senate, Susan Collins of Maine, have pushed for the USDA to employ your emergency fund.
Democrats like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker have also criticized the Trump administration for refusing to employ its resources, despite contradictions in its own Sept. 30 emergency response plan and reallocation of funds to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
“We know Trump has the resources to continue SNAP and other programs like WIC,” Booker said. “Weaponizing food aid is, simply put, a new and abhorrent low.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed that sentiment in a speech Monday.
“The administration is making a conscious decision not to fund SNAP this weekend,” the New York Democrat said. “The emergency funding is there. The administration is simply choosing not to use it.”
The USDA did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Millions of vulnerable people, such as low-income people and people with disabilities, rely on SNAP. About 40% of SNAP recipients are children ages 17 and younger.
Union calls for emergency solution
Another form of pressure on Democrats came Monday when the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, urged lawmakers to strike a deal to reopen the government.
Than the shutdown is approaching a monthmost of the approximately 2 million civilian federal employees have already missed paychecks.
AFGE is typically politically more on the Democratic side and had not publicly advocated for an emergency solution until Everett Kelley, the union’s president, on Monday called on Congress to end the government shutdown and pass a rolling resolution to restore funding.
“Because when the people who serve this country are standing in line at the food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they are not looking for partisan politics,” Kelley said said in the statement. “They are demanding the wages they have earned. The fact that they are being cheated out of this wage is a national disgrace.”
Johnson added that he hopes the recent statement from the union representing 800,000 federal workers will push Senate Democrats to agree to the House’s stopgap measure.
“You understand the reality,” he said.
Johnson defends USDA’s move
Johnson defended the USDA’s decision not to employ its emergency fund for SNAP during a morning press conference.
The USDA has argued that these funds could only be used for natural disasters or similar emergencies.
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, agreed with that reasoning.
“It definitely looks legitimate to me,” he said. “The emergency funds are not currently legally available to cover benefits. The reason is because it is a finite funding source. It has been sequestered by Congress, and when they transfer funds from these other sources, they are immediately deducted from school meals and infant formula. So… it’s a compromise.”
USDA The funds were reallocated earlier this month in several nutrition programs, including WIC, the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
States fight
The states are demanding Answers to why the USDA suspended SNAP benefits. On Friday, 23 state attorneys general sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins questioning the legal basis for the agency’s suspension of SNAP benefits.
With dwindling federal funding, states may choose to spend more on food aid,
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said Monday she would “accelerate” $30 million in federal emergency food aid to supplement SNAP benefits.
Johnson said if Senate Democrats fear SNAP benefits might not be available in November, they should pass the House stopgap government funding bill.
“The best way to get SNAP benefits paid out on time is for Democrats to end their shutdown, and that could happen now if they showed some spine,” Johnson said.
