Klobuchar says Trump administration has “no excuse” to withhold SNAP funds after rulings
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said the court rulings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island make it clear that the administration must release money to the states to fund SNAP benefits.
“The court’s decision confirms what we have said all week: The administration is choosing not to feed Americans in need, despite knowing that it is legally required to do so,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “The court was clear: the administration is ‘required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program.’ They now have no excuse to withhold food assistance from Americans.”
She added: “If they decide not to issue SNAP, it is purely a cruel political decision, not a legal one. They should immediately act — as the court has required — to ensure food assistance continues to go to families in need.”
Klobuchar was one of 46 Democrats who urged the USDA to use the contingency fund to make November SNAP payments. The senators wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last week saying they were “deeply disturbed to hear that the USDA has instructed states to stop processing SNAP benefits for November.”
Klobuchar is also a cosponsor of legislation led by GOP Rep. Josh Hawley of Missouri that would ensure SNAP remains funded during the shutdown. Thune has not brought that bill up for a vote in the Senate.
Here’s who receives SNAP benefits
More than 42 million Americans living in nearly 23 million households receive SNAP benefits as of August, according to monthly data published by USDA.
According to a USDA report covering fiscal year 2023, the latest available comprehensive data published in May of this year, non-Hispanic Whites made up the largest group of recipients, at more than 35% of beneficiaries. Black individuals represented nearly 26% of SNAP recipients, while Hispanics represented under 16% of SNAP recipients.
In 2023, 89% of SNAP recipients were born in the U.S., the USDA says, while just over 3% were noncitizens. The rest were naturalized citizens or refugees. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for benefits.
Children represented roughly 39% of SNAP recipients, and roughly 34% of all households receiving SNAP benefits had children.
About 59% of SNAP households in 2023 were single-person households, and the majority of those individuals were elderly or had a disability. But 21% of SNAP households have one or more non-elderly adults without a disability and without children, the USDA said.
New Mexico has the highest percent of SNAP recipients in 2024, at more than 21% of the state’s population, followed by Louisiana at 18.4%, according to USDA data.
SNAP rulings could ease pressure on lawmakers for shutdown deal
The rulings from federal judges effectively blocking the administration from freezing SNAP benefits are sure to come as a relief for the tens of millions of Americans who rely on food stamps. But the decisions could have the added effect of decreasing pressure on lawmakers to reach an agreement on funding the government.
Members of both parties have portrayed the freeze of SNAP benefits on Saturday as a potential turning point in the ongoing stalemate, the point at which continuing the shutdown would become more and more politically costly as 42 million Americans realize their food benefits have stalled.
Democrats have accused the administration of deliberately refusing to find more money to make SNAP payments as a way of exerting leverage to get them to reopen the government. The judges’ rulings take the pain of a SNAP freeze off the table, at least in the short term.
Earlier this week, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said he sensed that “all the bad things that are going to happen over the weekend” would prompt movement toward a deal in the Senate, citing the SNAP shortfall as well as funding lapses for other federal programs.
Judges say Trump administration must use contingency funds to make SNAP payments
Two federal judges said the Trump administration must tap into contingency funds to make payments under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown, ruling against the government in a pair of suits challenging the imminent benefits lapse.
In a case brought by a coalition of states in federal court in Massachusetts, Judge Indira Talwani ruled that the government is required by law to tap into the emergency money to make at least partial payments, and gave the administration until Monday to tell the court whether it planned to do so.
In Rhode Island, another federal judge granted a request for a temporary restraining order from a group of municipalities and nonprofits who sued to block the imminent funding freeze, according to attorneys for Democracy Forward, the group leading the suit. The ruling was made from the bench. An entry on the case docket said the court “orders the USDA to distribute contingency funds” and directs government attorneys to file a status report by noon on Monday.
In her ruling, Talwani she rejected the government’s argument that the $5 billion contingency fund cannot be used to fund benefits during the lapse in appropriations.
“At core, Defendants’ conclusion that USDA is statutorily prohibited from funding SNAP because Congress has not enacted new appropriations for the current fiscal year is erroneous,” Talwani wrote. “To the contrary, Defendants are statutorily mandated to use the previously appropriated SNAP contingency reserve when necessary and also have discretion to use other previously appropriated funds.”
Read more here.
Trump says Democrats are “hurting their own people” with SNAP freeze
After boarding Air Force One en route to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the president told reporters that Democrats in Congress are “hurting their own people” by refusing to vote for a funding extension, claiming most SNAP recipients are Democrats.
“You know, largely, when you talk about SNAP, you’re talking about largely Democrats,” Mr. Trump said. “But I’m president, I want to help everybody. I want to help Democrats and Republicans. But when you’re talking about SNAP, if you look, it’s largely Democrats. They’re hurting their own people.”
The voting records of SNAP recipients aren’t tracked and reported by the federal government. New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Oregon have the highest percentage of residents who rely on SNAP, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A recent analysis by Time of data compiled by the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities found that 25 of the 30 states that Mr. Trump won in 2024 have higher rates of SNAP participation than the national average.
House cancels votes next week
During the House’s brief pro forma session, the clerk read an announcement from Speaker Mike Johnson formally designating next week as a “district work period,” as expected.
The House has not voted since Sept. 19, when it passed the continuing resolution to extend government funding until Nov. 21. Johnson has vowed to keep House lawmakers away until the Senate votes to end the shutdown.
Head Start programs begin to close as funding ends during shutdown
With the Senate out of town, the government shutdown is almost certain to extend through at least Monday, as millions of Americans begin to feel its effects. Among them are those who rely on Head Start, a free early childhood development program for low-income families.
The Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program is shuttering nine Head Start centers in early November because of the shutdown. A program in Richland Center, Wisconsin, is closing its doors Friday. Stephanie Wallace, who has taught at the center for 13 years and has now been temporarily laid off, said goodbye to her students this week.
“Some of the kids already knew,” she said. “We told them, you know, we’re not going to see you for a little bit.”
According to the National Head Start Association, approximately 140 Head Start programs nationwide, serving roughly 65,000 children, will stop receiving federal funding beginning Nov. 1. In addition to educational support, Head Start also provides screenings, health and dental care and nutrition for children from low-income families.
Tawny Hardyman, the director of Southwest CAP Head Start, told CBS News, “I think families are going to feel like the rug is being yanked out from underneath them.”
Read more here.
House formally cancels Monday votes
As they have for the past five weeks, House GOP leaders formally canceled votes for Monday. Votes are expected to be canceled for the rest of the week when the chamber convenes for a pro forma session this afternoon.
A schedule update said that members will have 48 hours to return to Washington if votes are scheduled.
Thune’s position on filibuster is “unchanged,” spokesman says
Ryan Wrasse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, said in a statement that the South Dakota Republican’s stance on the 60-vote threshold for legislation remains the same.
“Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,” said Wrasse.
On the first day of the current Congress in January, Thune promised to uphold the filibuster as the Republican leader.
“Unfortunately, today there are a lot of people out there who would like to see the Senate turn into a copy of the House of Representatives. And that … is not what our founders intended, or what our country needs,” Thune said in a speech on the Senate floor on Jan. 3. “One of my priorities as leader will be to ensure that the Senate stays the Senate. That means preserving the legislative filibuster, the Senate rule that today perhaps has the greatest impact on preserving the founders’ vision of the United States Senate.”
More recently, on Oct. 10, Thune said the filibuster has “been a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening to the country.”
Rollins says SNAP freeze has “shined a light” on how “bloated” the program is
Rollins said the “silver lining” of the upcoming SNAP freeze is that the attention on the program has shown how “bloated” it is.
A reporter asked Rollins if there are plans to ensure SNAP benefits only go to U.S. citizens. SNAP benefits have long only been limited to U.S. citizens and immigrants in the U.S. lawfully. Refugees will lose access to SNAP benefits soon under Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Rollins said the administration is working with states to get “illegal aliens” off SNAP.
“I guess the silver lining in all this is that we’re having a national conversation on our SNAP program,” Rollins said. “That this has sort of shined a light on a program that, especially under the last administration, has just become so bloated, so broken, so dysfunctional, so corrupt, that it is astonishing when you dig in.”
Johnson declines to weigh in on Trump’s call to end filibuster
Asked about the president’s call to scrap the filibuster in the Senate, Johnson declined to weigh in, saying the matter is up to the Senate to decide.
Johnson said he hadn’t spoken to the president since he returned from his trip to Asia on Thursday, but offered an interpretation of the president’s comments.
“What you’re seeing is an expression of the president’s anger at the situation. He is as angry as I am and the American people are about this madness, and he just desperately wants the government to be reopened so that all these resources can flow to the people who need it so much,” the speaker said.
“I’ll just say this in general, as I’ve said many times about the filibuster, it’s not my call. I don’t have a say in this. It’s a Senate chamber issue. We don’t have that in the House, as you know,” he added. “But the filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe is on the other foot, I don’t think our team would like it.”
Johnson said his opinion on the filibuster “is not relevant.”
Rollins says SNAP contingency fund can’t be used to pay November benefits
At Johnson’s press conference, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blamed Democrats for the upcoming SNAP funding shortage, and reiterated her position that the department cannot use a contingency fund of $5 billion to cover benefits.
“Millions of Americans as of tomorrow will no longer receive SNAP and potential WIC or even a paycheck. Democrats have instigated a disgusting dereliction of duty unlike anything I have seen in all my years doing this work,” Rollins said.
The secretary said Americans who rely on SNAP are being used as “pawns in a political game.” She said the assertion that the contingency fund could be used to cover benefits is “absolutely false and it is a lie.” She noted that $9.2 billion would be required to fully cover SNAP payments for November.
Rollins said the law prevents the use of the contingency fund without underlying appropriations.
“By law, the contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing,” the secretary said. “Even if it could flow, it doesn’t even cover half of the month of November. So here we are again, in two weeks, having the exact same conversation.”
Johnson: “We are now reaching a breaking point” in shutdown and children “will go hungry”
At his daily press conference at the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson said President Trump and his administration “have done everything in their power” to “mitigate and reduce the harm to the American people.”
“He’s gone out of his way to find creative solutions to ensure our service members don’t miss a paycheck, for example,” Johnson said alongside Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “To ensure that the WIC program, that the nutrition assistance to women, infants and children, is still flowing. President Trump has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that if there is any way to fund these programs that are drying up now that he will do it. If there was any way to fund SNAP during the Democrat shutdown, you can be assured that your commander-in-chief would do it.”
“But we are now reaching a breaking point,” Johnson continued. “Thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding, now 14 different times, SNAP benefits for millions of American families are drying up. … You’re going to have real people, real families, you’re going to have children who will go hungry beginning this weekend when those resources dry up.”
White House says U.S. military will be paid today as scheduled
The White House says U.S. military forces will be paid today as scheduled.
The Office of Management and Budget tells CBS News the money is coming from the following areas:
- $2.5 billion from a military housing fund.
- $1.4 billion from a research and development fund, which normally funds military research and was heavily relied upon two weeks ago to cover military paychecks.
- $1.4 billion from a Pentagon procurement account for building U.S. Navy ships.
Axios first reported the White House’s plan to pay the military today.
Thune has previously rebuffed calls to end filibuster
The prospect of invoking the nuclear option to end the shutdown has come up over the course of the past month. Most recently, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Senate Republicans should do away with the 60-vote threshold to pass the House’s continuing resolution with a simple majority.
But most Senate Republicans have rejected those calls over the years, arguing that the filibuster upholds the upper chamber’s unique role in ensuring major legislation attracts bipartisan support.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been one of those Republicans pushing back against nuking the filibuster, telling reporters on Oct. 10 that the 60-vote threshold “has protected this country.”
“There are folks out there who think that is the way we ought to do things around here, simple majority. But I can tell you that the filibuster through the years has been something that’s been a bulwark against a lot of really bad things happening to the country,” he said at the time.
While most legislation requires 60 votes to advance, certain types of tax and spending bills can be passed through a process known as reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority. Republicans used reconciliation to pass their One Big Beautiful Bill Act over the summer.
The filibuster has also been curtailed in recent years. In 2013, Democrats first invoked the nuclear option to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for most executive branch appointments and lower-level judicial nominations. Republicans extended that to include Supreme Court nominees in 2017.
Stefan Becket and Grace Kazarian
Trump calls on Republicans to “Get rid of the Filibuster”
In a series of Truth Social posts late Thursday night, the president called on Republican lawmakers to do away with the filibuster.
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.”
The president was referring to an attempt by Senate Democrats in January 2022, when they tried to push through voting rights legislation by changing the chamber’s filibuster rule. The effort failed due to objections from then-Democratic Sens. Manchin and Sinema. Both have since left the Senate and registered as independents.
While Senate legislation only needs 51 votes to pass, under the Senate’s filibuster rule, it takes 60 votes to end debate on a bill and bring it to the floor for such a passage vote, a procedure known as cloture. A filibuster occurs when the Senate does not have the 60 votes needed, as has been the case during the shutdown with the House-passed short-term government funding bill.
“If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it,” Mr. Trump wrote Thursday.
Food banks already strained by shutdown brace for surge with SNAP benefits set to expire
A month into the shutdown, food banks across the country are already straining to meet rising demand from hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay.
Now, they are bracing for an even bigger surge.
Carlos Gomez, a federal employee based in San Antonio, Texas, has been relying on a local food bank to feed his family during the government shutdown.
“I have a very large family, so it’s getting kind of hard. Whether the government is shut down or not, bills need to get paid,” Gomez said.
Read more here.
Omar Villafranca and Allie Weintraub
Food banks “can’t possibly meet” extra demand caused by SNAP cutoff, nonprofit rep says
The head of a group that represents charitable organizations said Thursday that food banks will be “pushed past the breaking point” if federal food aid is cut off this weekend.
“Nonprofits can’t possibly meet the tremendous new need that’ll be created when 42 million people lose access to basic food security,” National Council of Nonprofits CEO Diane Yentel said on CBS News’ “The Daily Report.”
Payments for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are set to come to a halt on Saturday due to the government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says.
The National Council of Nonprofits and several other groups filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, arguing the Trump administration doesn’t have the legal authority to suspend SNAP benefits and must tap into a USDA contingency fund to keep the program going. USDA argues it doesn’t have the legal authority to use that $5 billion fund, which the lawsuit pushed back on.
Yentel told CBS News that if SNAP benefits are cut off, food banks and food pantries will shoulder the burden of helping the approximately one in eight Americans who use SNAP to get groceries.
She said that, even prior to the end of SNAP, food banks have been under pressure due to high grocery prices and a government shutdown that has left thousands of federal workers without pay.
“It’s more than most food banks can handle,” she said. “They’re having to turn people away or they’re having to ration assistance so that everybody gets something.”