WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown hit the 31-day mark, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins insisted on Friday that her agency’s contingency funds are not available to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in November. Starting Saturday, roughly 42 million low-income Americans are at risk of losing SNAP assistance because Congress has failed to agree on a bill to fund and reopen the government.
“The fact that the Democrats are saying, ‘But wait, USDA has money in their accounts’ … is a lie,” Rollins said during a House Republican news conference.
Rollins said the USDA notified state administrators of the federal program twice in October that SNAP benefits would end Nov. 1.
Democrats contend the USDA has at least $5 billion in a contingency fund that can and should be used to pay SNAP benefits while the government is shut down. On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused President Donald Trump of manufacturing a hunger crisis and lying about the fund’s availability.
Earlier in the week, 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the USDA and Rollins, alleging the federal government is legally required to make SNAP payments because Congress already appropriated the money.
Rollins pushed back on that idea Friday, saying the contingency fund wouldn’t be sufficient to cover the $9.2 billion that is needed to pay SNAP benefits in November and that the contingency monies are only allowed to be used if the underlying appropriation is funded.
The appropriations bills to fund the government are currently in limbo because Republicans’ stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21 –– and allow for those appropriations to be negotiated –– has not passed.
Democrats have repeatedly blocked the bill over demands that Republicans extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year. The Senate won’t vote on the measure again until next week, after SNAP benefits run out. Because the bill requires 60 votes to pass, Republicans need five Democrats to join them, but they have so far failed in that effort.
Trump, along with Republican leaders in the House and Senate, have insisted for weeks that GOP lawmakers will only negotiate with Democrats about health care subsidies once the shutdown has ended.
Late Thursday, President Trump advocated for a simple majority vote in the Senate to end the government shutdown, writing on Truth Social: “BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE “NUCLEAR OPTION,” GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to weigh in on Trump’s call to end the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold, saying, “It’s not my call. I don’t have a say in this. It’s a Senate chamber issue.”
He added: “The filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe was on the other foot, I don’t think our team would like it.”
Johnson said he has not spoken with Trump since he returned from his trip to Asia, but he described Trump’s filibuster post as being “another expression of the frustration, of the pressure that has been felt, the anger that is being felt by the president and by me and all of us.”
The anger and frustration are apparent on both sides of the aisle.
On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on X: “Democrats are fighting to protect SNAP and save healthcare. It’s time for House Republicans to end their five-week vacation and reopen the government. Enough.”
However, that doesn’t appear likely anytime soon.
Before the Senate adjourned for the weekend on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wrote on X: “If there are any Democrats out there who care about the damage this shutdown is doing, then I have a bill at the desk: A clean, nonpartisan CR (continuing resolution) to fund WIC, SNAP, troop pay, air traffic controller pay, farm programs, housing assistance, national defense, and more.”
