(Oct. 28) WASHINGTON – As food stamp benefits are set to end for 42 million Americans – including 440,000 households in Minnesota – Democrats are insisting the Trump administration can use emergency funds to continue the program through November.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, was among those who pressed the administration to use a little more than $5 billion in an emergency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the official name for food stamps, to help fund the program past Nov. 1, when all benefits will end.
“The law is clear, as is this administration’s cruelty,” said Craig, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, at a Capitol Hill press conference held by House Democratic leaders on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Minnesota joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia in suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency in charge of SNAP, for failing to release funds they say are appropriated by Congress to keep the food stamp program running through an emergency.
The states have asked a federal judge in Massachusetts to require the department to use available money to fund the program.
“Congress put a rainy-day fund in place so nutrition support could continue during a government shutdown, yet despite that clear congressional intent, Trump’s USDA is refusing to tap into that fund,” Ellison said in a statement. “It is a disgrace to the presidency that Donald Trump is using hungry children throughout Minnesota as bargaining chips in the fight over his government shutdown.”
On Monday, Gov. Tim Walz directed the state to provide $4 million to food shelves that have already been strained by demand from Minnesotans who are food insecure. That would do little to counter the amount of food stamps provided to qualified, low-income Minnesotans, which cost the SNAP program an average of $73 million a month.
Like other Democrats, Walz also demanded the USDA fund the food stamp program past the Nov. 1 funding cliff.
“The USDA has funding set aside to keep food assistance programs running during emergencies,” Walz said in a social media post. “Trump just won’t release it. 440,000 Minnesotans – and millions more Americans – will pay the price.”
But the USDA says it has no authority to continue the food stamp program.
“Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 1,” the USDA said in a message on its website.
But Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., disputed that “the well has run dry.”
“First the administration cut food assistance for Americans in need,” she said in a social media post, referring to SNAP cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “Now they’re refusing to use emergency funds for food assistance — even though their now-deleted shutdown plan said they could. They have funding to keep families from going hungry. There’s no excuse.”
Nevertheless, House Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted this week the administration has “no legal authority” to use emergency funds for SNAP.
Several lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have proposed legislation that would provide additional appropriations for the program.
But Johnson insists on keeping the House in recess until the Senate approves a House GOP stopgap spending bill that does not contain Democratic demands for increased health care funding.
Johnson has also told GOP lawmakers they should keep the pressure on Democrats instead of finding ways to blunt the impact of the shutdown, which is now in its 28th day.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday “there’s not a high level of interest in doing carve outs, or so-called ‘rifle shots.’”
“I think most people realize the way to get out of this mess is to vote to open up the government,” Thune said.
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