Food aid at risk of expiring as effort to fund SNAP benefits fails in Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders in Congress said it’s all or nothing on Wednesday as they rejected a Democratic push to carve out funding to continue food aid for more than 40 million Americans who stand to lose it as part of the government shutdown.

Democrats have repeatedly voted against reopening the government as they demand that Republicans negotiate with them to extend expiring health care subsidies. But they pushed for expedited approval of legislation to continue funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in the meantime.

“It’s simple, it’s moral, it’s urgent,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said as he called for passage of the SNAP funding Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., angrily objected to the Democratic request, calling it “a cynical attempt to provide political cover” for Democrats to continue the shutdown, now in its 29th day.

“We’re not going to let them pick winners and losers,” Thune said. “It’s time to fund everybody.”

If Democrats want to prevent damage from the shutdown, “they can end the shutdown,” Thune said.

The increasingly pointed statements from lawmakers on Capitol Hill reflected growing frustration and pressure that is building as the SNAP deadline looms and federal workers and military service members face missed paychecks this week.

Vulnerable families could see federal money dry up soon for some other programs, as well — from certain Head Start preschool programs to aid for mothers to care for their newborns through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC.

SNAP deadline looms for millions of Americans

The Department of Agriculture has posted on its website that the SNAP benefits will end Friday. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the statement read.

Almost two dozen states have filed a lawsuit arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration has the money to continue the benefits and is legally required to do so. Schumer said that SNAP benefits have never stopped during previous government shutdowns and that Trump is “picking politics over the lives of hungry kids.”

Republican leaders, in turn, blamed Democrats. The solution, they said, was for Democrats in the Senate to allow for passage of their short-term funding patch that has so far failed 13 times in that chamber.

“Things are getting really tough on the American people,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the start of his daily press conference that has become a staple of the shutdown.

Standoff, and the blame game, continues

The House has been out of session since mid-September, and Johnson is resolute that he will not bring the House back until the Senate has passed a bill to fund the government, which the House did on Sept. 19.

Senate Democrats have shown no signs publicly that they are backing away from their insistence that a government funding bill also include help for millions of Americans who purchase health insurance coverage on the exchanges established through the Affordable Care Act.

The standoff shows few signs of easing. Thune told reporters there’s been a “higher level of conversation” with Democrats this week and that talks continued between senators in both parties over possible health care compromises.

But the underlying dynamics of the impasse remained the same. Thune and other Republicans are continuing to press rank-and-file Democrats to vote to reopen the government before the Senate takes up talks to extend the health coverage benefits. That’s the strategy that’s been in place for nearly a month.

On Tuesday, air traffic controllers missed their paychecks and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expressed concerns that flight delays could multiply as increasingly stressed-out controllers call out sick. Also on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance told reporters after meeting behind closed doors with Senate Republicans that he believes U.S. military members will be paid at the end of the week, though he did not specify how.

SNAP patches stall

In a press conference, House Democrats called on Trump to return from his trip in Asia to address the issue.

“If the president wanted to help feed hungry American children, he would,” said Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee that handles the food aid program. “I’m calling on the president to get back from Asia and do the right thing — and the moral thing.”

As Republicans objected to the legislation to continue SNAP benefits, Democrats said they’d also support a similar bill from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has separate legislation to immediately fund the program.

But Thune said Republicans won’t allow a piecemeal process. He called on Democrats to support their bill to extend all government funding and reopen the government.

“If Democrats really want to fund SNAP and WIC, we have a bill for them,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Stephen Groves and Matt Brown contributed to this report.