Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to continue funding federal food benefits for more than 40 million Americans, which are set to lapse for the first time in modern history at the end of the week.
The bill, introduced Wednesday by Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, would fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) after Nov. 1. The legislation rivaled a bipartisan bill by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley to fund SNAP benefits for the month of November. Hawley’s bill relied on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Treasury Department to fund the program.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune opposed both legislations.
Luján asked for the bill to be passed by unanimous consent, a procedure by which a bill can pass when no other senators object. The New Mexico senator said from the floor that “access to food is a human right. It’s that simple.”
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SNAP benefits will run out on Saturday. USDA initially said it planned to use the more than $5 billion in contingency funds that are legally intended “for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations.” However, the Trump administration later changed course, claiming it was illegal for them to use that money for SNAP.
“As a matter of fact, never in the history of the United States has SNAP been allowed to lapse like this,” Luján said. “During President Trump’s first term … they tapped these same funds to allow SNAP benefits to continue to roll. Now, President Trump says that the use of SNAP contingency funds is illegal.”
A visibly upset Thune, speaking directly to Luján from the floor, objected to the Democratic bill.
“We are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown. The senator from New Mexico is absolutely right: SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food, people should be getting paid in this country. We tried to do that 13 times. You voted ‘no’ 13 times,” Thune said, raising his voice.
“If Democrats really want to fund SNAP and WIC, I have the bill for them. It’s sitting right there on the desk,” Thune added, referring to Republicans’ continuing resolution.
Luján responded on the floor, saying Thune was trying to “spin an argument as to why there should be justification for 40 million people to go hungry.”
He added that it was Republicans’ responsibility as the party with the majority in Congress to negotiate with Democrats for a bill that lawmakers could support. “When you hold power, when you’re the majority, you meet people, you pull them in,” Luján said. “You don’t tell people, ‘You know where my office is.’” (Thune has repeatedly told reporters that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer knows where his office is and is welcome to go there to talk about the shutdown.)
After leaving the floor, Thune told reporters that he “channeled a little bit of anger there, but it’s a high level of frustration.”
Democrats, he said, are “looking for an off-ramp, and the problem is that just extends the shutdown because you take the painful issues that more Americans care about, and pretty soon you’re in a shutdown that’s into another two, three weeks.”
Just a day earlier, Schumer blamed President Donald Trump for the lapse in SNAP benefits on the Senate floor and said that he would support Hawley’s bill.
“The bill is simple, it’s moral, it’s urgent,” Schumer said. Thune “decries the fact that SNAP benefits are cut off, he knows the money is available, he knows there’s broad Republican support for it, and he doesn’t put it on the floor.”
Other senators also urged Thune to support Hawley’s bill in a press conference Wednesday ahead of Luján’s proposal. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Republicans need to start negotiating.
“I say to Senator Thune, ‘When you have 11 Republicans and every member of the Democratic caucus in support, that bill should get to the floor immediately. No child in this country should be forced to go hungry,’” Sanders said.
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