Food Stamps Become No. 1 Issue as Shutdown Gets Dose of Urgency

Food stamps are fast becoming the centerpiece of congressional Republicans’ and Democrats’ shutdown stare-down as nutritional benefits for 41 million Americans threaten to dry up in just three days.

After weeks of seeming inaction and stalemate inside the Capitol, both sides are eyeing the deadline as a way to pressure the other into making a deal. The issue took center stage after Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the White House believes it can pay troops this Friday, once again taking a political grenade — missed paychecks for the military — off the table.

The maneuver would clear the way for missed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits Saturday to become the No. 1 pressure point on lawmakers to end a nearly month-long government shutdown.

Food Fight

“I am the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, and I promise you that there is funding available to provide SNAP benefits beyond Nov. 1,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told reporters Tuesday. The top House Democratic appropriator said Congress set aside “at the very least over $5 billion” to pay out SNAP benefits during “unforeseen circumstances like President Trump’s shutdown.”

The Saturday nutrition cliff represents arguably the most severe consequence yet of Congress’s game of chicken over government funding. As Republicans and Democrats continue to blame each other and dig their heels in, they’re each pointing to Saturday as a critical day for the shutdown to end — with the other team folding. Publicly, the looming SNAP cliff hasn’t brought either party closer to giving in.

“What are these Democrats waiting for?” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday, warning of “the greatest hunger crisis since the Great Depression” in days. “They’re taking food off the table for families, for babies.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said during an exclusive Bloomberg Government roundtable Tuesday that Republicans are “dreaming” if they expect Democrats to fold under the pressure of the weekend’s deadline.

Senate Republicans and Vance left their lunch on Tuesday still pushing their same strategy of focusing on pressuring five Democrats to vote for the House-passed GOP stopgap bill. Senate Democrats blocked that bill for the 13th time on Tuesday.

Vance told reporters after the meeting that he thinks the White House can pay the military this week, after using a similar maneuver two weeks ago, though he didn’t provide details on how. But he reiterated the White House position that food stamp benefits are set to run out at the end of the week.

“We’re trying to keep as much open as possible, and we’re exploring all options. There are limitations on all these funds and limitations on how you can use them,” Vance said on Tuesday. “If the Democrats just opened up the government, then we wouldn’t have to play this game.”

Reaching Capacity

The Agriculture Department claimed on Friday it lacks legal authority to distribute billions from a nutrition benefit reserve fund because the government shut down before lawmakers passed fiscal 2026 appropriations. A shutdown plan USDA published, then deleted, acknowledged congressional intent to keep the program running during a federal funding lapse but said the reserve fund was only available if that occurred “in the middle of the fiscal year.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he spoke with President Donald Trump on Monday night and that the president would be happy to sit down with Democrats about health care next week, but only if Democrats reopen the government.

“They’re doing everything they can legally and with the capacity that they have available to them to try and make this as painless as possible,” Thune said. “But there is a point at which they don’t have that capacity anymore, and I think we’ve reached that point.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) placed the blame on the Trump administration for the SNAP benefits and thinks there will be increased pressure on Republicans to negotiate after Nov. 1.

Schumer said Trump ordered the Department of Agriculture “to rip up its own contingency plan,” and that Trump funded SNAP during a shutdown in 2019. He said Democrats will try to get their own measure to extend SNAP and WIC funding passed on the floor. But that’s likely to be blocked by Republicans.

“Trump’s using them as hostages,” Schumer said on Tuesday about SNAP recipients. “How cruel, how vicious, how out of touch with people is this huge ego of Donald Trump.”