White House Walks Back Trump Threat to Withhold SNAP Benefits
It's Election Day! Voters are having their say in closely watched contests in New York City, California, New Jersey and Virginia. And the government shutdown is about the become the longest ever. Here's your Tuesday update.
As Shutdown Becomes Longest Ever, Optimism Grows for a Deal
The 35-day-old government shutdown will set a record tonight as the longest ever. As the funding lapse enters an unprecedented sixth week, optimism is percolating in the Senate that a deal to end the standoff may be coming together as bipartisan talks among rank-and-file lawmakers gather momentum.
"I do believe we are finally making progress. It's too soon to declare that this nightmare of a shutdown is over, but I'm very cautiously hopeful that it will be resolved by the end of this week," Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins told reporters Monday evening, while also warning that talks could still fall apart.
With no deal in place yet, the House-passed Republican bill to fund the government through November 21 was blocked again in the Senate on Tuesday, the 14th time the legislation has failed to advance.
Still, senators on both sides are reportedly pressing to move ahead with the annual government funding process and set up votes on a package of appropriations bills that have bipartisan support. The senators working behind the scenes to find a path forward reportedly include Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Chris Coons of Delaware and Gary Peters of Michigan. On the Republican side, Collins of Maine, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama have been involved in the talks.
The nascent deal being discussed would also involve a vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of the shutdown fight. Many differences remain, though, including over the duration of a new stopgap bill that funds federal agencies to reopen the government.
Democrats divided: Democrats are also split on precisely what promises they need to get regarding the renewal of Affordable Care Act subsidies, the primary concession they have demanded. The deal being discussed would reportedly fall short of the goal many Democrats had set: to ensure that the subsidies set to expire at the end of the year are extended, preventing a surge in out-of-pocket premium costs.
Democrats had initially rejected the offer made by Senate Majority Leader John Thune to hold a vote on extending the expiring subsidies once the government reopens because it did not include any guarantee that the vote would succeed.
Before the shutdown began, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries insisted that any deal with Republicans to protect Americans' healthcare be "ironclad" and in writing, but on Tuesday he indicated that he may have some wiggle room. Asked if House Democrats would be skeptical about an agreement coming from the Senate, Jeffries
"We said from the very beginning that we will evaluate in good faith any bipartisan agreement that emerges from the Senate, reopens the government, makes life better for the American people and decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. Until we see details, we're not in position to do much more than that."
Other Democrats are pressing for the party to continue its fight until it secures a firm deal to extend the subsidies, not just a vote.
"If the Democrats cave on this, I think it would be a betrayal to millions and millions of working families who want them to stand up and protect their health care benefits," Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters on Tuesday. In an op-ed for The Guardian this weekend, Sanders warned that "surrendering" to Trump now would only speed his move toward authoritarianism.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut also cautioned against a deal and warned that Democrats would be "suckers" to think that Republicans who have long opposed Obamacare and its subsidies are suddenly going to back it in a month.
Warnings of more trouble ahead: With hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay, SNAP benefits interrupted for millions of Americans, airport delays causing havoc for travelers, the pressure to end the shutdown continues to intensify. The notices of insurance premium hikes being delivered to American households also adds to the pressure to find a solution on the Obamacare subsidies.
The pain may only get worse. The U.S. Travel Association, which represents companies in the travel and tourism industry, said in a letter to congressional leaders on Monday that their sector of the economy has already lost more than $4 billion because of the shutdown and urged them to "prevent a Thanksgiving travel crisis."
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy followed that warning with one of his own today, suggesting that air travel will devolve into "mass chaos" if the shutdown continues and air traffic controllers miss a second payday next Tuesday. "You will see mass flight delays," Duffy warned. "You'll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace, because we just cannot manage it because we don't have air traffic controllers."
Trump Threatens to Withhold SNAP Benefits, Then White House Walks It Back
One day after the Department of Agriculture said it would tap an emergency fund to pay partial benefits for the 42 million Americans in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, President Trump reversed course and announced that his administration will not provide any additional funding for the nation's main nutrition assistance program until the government shutdown comes to an end.
"SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden's disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly 'handed' to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" Trump said in a post on his social media platform.
Although the meaning of Trump's message seemed clear enough, his press secretary provided a sharply different interpretation of his words. Karoline Leavitt told reporters that "the administration is fully complying" with a court order requiring the administration to fund SNAP using a $5.3 billion emergency fund, enough to pay about half of November's scheduled benefits. Leavitt said that Trump's threat to not use the contingency fund to pay this month's benefits, as ordered, was really the president's way of saying that he wants to avoid tapping that fund "in the future."
"He does not want to have to keep tapping into an emergency fund and depleting it in the case of a catastrophe in this country," Leavitt said. "He wants to have those funds preserved, as they should be."
Leavitt also repeated a warning provided by the Department of Agriculture yesterday that it will take time to distribute the partial benefit payment for the month of November.
Earlier Tuesday, a group of cities and non-profits went to court to force the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits in full in November, rather than the partial payment promised by the White House. Anti-hunger groups and some Democrats are calling on the administration to tap a separate, larger fund dedicated to child nutrition and school meals to pay this month's benefits. A federal judge scheduled a hearing in the case for Thursday afternoon.
Job Postings Hit 4-Year Low: Report
The government shutdown means that the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not release its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey today, but an alternate measure of the labor market is showing signs of notable weakness.
The employment site Indeed announced Monday that its job postings index dropped to the lowest level since February 2021 as of late October. The index has fallen 3.5% since mid-August, when the last job openings data was released by the BLS before the shutdown began.
Officials at the Federal Reserve have expressed concerns about weakness in the labor market, helping spur recent rate reductions, and the data from Indeed will likely bolster the case for further cuts.
"Hiring is slowing. We see this from Indeed, from job postings," Fed Governor Lisa Cook said Monday, per CNBC. "We're looking at a panoply of data, and those are real time. We're not waiting on the unemployment report. There's reason to be concerned, because there's a slight uptick in the unemployment rate over the summer."
Shutdown News
- Talks to End the Government Shutdown Intensify as Federal Closure Nears Longest Ever – Associated Press
- Shutdown Ties Record as Elections Create Possible Turning Point – Bloomberg
- House Dems Bend on Demand for "Ironclad" Shutdown Deal as Talks Ramp Up – Axios
- Democrats Divided Over Cutting Deal to End Shutdown – The Hill
- Outraged Liberals Warn Democratic Leaders Not to Cave on Shutdown – CNN
- Obamacare Subsidy Extension Will Need 60 Votes, Thune Says – Politico
- Trump Readying "Living Hell" for GOP Senators Over Nuking Filibuster – Axios
- Americans Will Still Get Partial SNAP Benefits Despite Trump Post, White House Says – Politico
- White House Scrambles to Limit Fallout of Trump Threats to Withhold SNAP Food Aid Benefits – Politico
- Speaker Johnson Throws Cold Water on December End-Date for Funding Bill – The Hill
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Warns of 'Mass Chaos' in Skies if Shutdown Continues – Associated Press
Other News
- White House Nears Deal to Lower Obesity Drug Prices for Medicare Coverage – Washington Post
- The White House’s Plan A Is Winning Its Supreme Court Tariff Case. It Also Has a Plan B – Politico
- Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Sales Tumble After Government Guidance on the Shots Narrows – Associated Press
- White House Backs FDA Head After Ouster of Top Regulator – Politico
- Dick Cheney, One of the Most Powerful and Polarizing Vice Presidents in US History, Dies at 84 – Associated Press
Views and Analysis
- 5 Under-the-Radar Races to Watch Tuesday – Andrew Howard, Politico
- Cash-Strapped Americans Signal Rising Costs Could Be Trump's Midterm Headache – Avery Lotz, Axios
- Trump Lost the Politics of the Shutdown – David Dayen, American Prospect
- Here Are Trump's Options If the Supreme Court Says His Tariffs Are Illegal – Isabel Gottlieb, Bloomberg
- 'Complete Cowardice': Why Big Business Sat Out the Tariff Legal Fight – Daniel Barnes and Caitlin Oprysko, Politico
- Despite Vow to Protect Health Care for Veterans, VA Losing Doctors and Nurses – Marcus Baram, Capital & Main
- The Old Order Is Dead. Do Not Resuscitate – Sven Beckert, New York Times