Schumer Open to Backing Hawley SNAP Bill as Food Aid Faces November Lapse
'We will vote for the Hawley SNAP bill if Thune does the right thing'
Support independent journalism, buy a subscription. No billionaires, no bribes. Your support makes real reporting possible.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Wednesday said he may be open to Democrats backing Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO.) legislation aimed at funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as the program faces a potential funding lapse in November amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introduced a competing measure on Wednesday that calls for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund both SNAP and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). The USDA posted a notice on its website stating that federal food aid will not be distributed on Nov. 1.
“We will push to pass the Luján bill. We will vote for the Hawley SNAP bill if Thune does the right thing and puts it on the floor before the weekend, before families lose their benefits, before holidays turn into a hunger crisis. We are ready to act,” Schumer told reporters.
Ten Republicans have signed on to the Hawley bill: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), James Lankford (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bill Cassidy (La.), Katie Britt (Ala.), Bernie Moreno (Ohio), John Cornyn (Texas), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), and Jon Husted (Ohio). Democrat Sen. Peter Welch (Vt.) is cosponsoring the measure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) argued that Democrats are responsible for the potential lapse, criticizing Luján on the Senate floor for voting against clean stopgap bills.
“We are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown,” Thune said. “SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country. And we’ve tried to do that thirteen times! You voted no thirteen times!”
He accused Democrats of proposing “a cynical attempt to provide political cover” to extend the shutdown rather than passing a clean continuing resolution. “This isn’t a political game—these are real people’s lives that we’re talking about!” he added, noting Republicans passed 13 short-term clean CRs when Democrats held the majority under President Biden.
Thune argued that President Trump could sign a clean CR “with a stroke of his pen” to reopen the government, which would restore SNAP benefits while ensuring “TSA workers get paid, air traffic controllers get paid, border patrol agents get paid, troops get paid.”
Luján defended his position in response, saying he understood Thune’s “words that were being used today to spin an argument as to why there should be justification for 41 million people to go hungry.” Republicans subsequently moved to block the Luján bill.
The push to fund SNAP comes after the administration moved funds to continue paying the troops during the shutdown. The USDA has asserted it will not use more than $5 billion in SNAP contingency funding that Congress has allocated for emergency situations.
YouTube | Bluesky | TikTok | X | Substack
Cut through the noise.
Get in touch to discuss partnership options: sales@24sight.news.