As the government shutdown nears the one-month mark, Democrats are attacking President Donald Trump and Republicans over expiring food stamp benefits, even as Senate Democrats repeatedly vote against funding bills that would reopen the government and keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) operating.
SNAP funding is set to expire at the end of the month, potentially affecting over 42 million Americans. Leading Democrats — including Sens. Alex Padilla, Mark Kelly, Mazie Hirono, Andy Kim, and Chuck Schumer — accuse President Trump of “letting kids go hungry” and claim he is refusing to use emergency funds to keep the program running.
However, Senate Democrats have now voted 13 times against a clean continuing resolution (CR) that would reopen the government, according to The Hill. The CR needs 60 votes to advance. It received 54 — not enough to pass — despite support from some Democrats, including Sen. John Fetterman, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and Sen. Angus King.
Padilla claimed Trump has the money but is refusing to use it: “Americans are going to go hungry because Republicans want leverage.” Mark Kelly accused the administration of using “hardworking Americans as political pawns,” and Schumer said the administration is choosing “not to use” $5 billion in available emergency funds to fund SNAP.
But Speaker of the House Mike Johnson countered those claims, laying out several key facts on Tuesday. He emphasized that Democrat votes are necessary to fund the government, noting the Senate filibuster threshold: “You must have 60 votes in the Senate,” Johnson said. “We only have 53 Republicans, so we must have Democrats to do it.”
Johnson also pointed out that Democrats are refusing to pass funding unless it includes billions in benefits for illegal aliens and restores spending on programs many Republicans have called wasteful and unrelated to national priorities.
“They want billions of dollars in wasteful programs to be returned to foreign countries,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to do that.”
Despite their public outrage, Senate Democrats continue to block clean funding bills that would keep essential programs like SNAP funded and avoid further disruption. With Democrats controlling the Senate and repeatedly voting down Republican funding measures, their coordinated blame campaign appears to ignore their own legislative record.
