Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling Out Donald Trump And Congressional Republicans For Turning Millions Of Children, Seniors, And Veterans Into Political Pawns By Callously Reneging On His Promise To Fund SNAP Benefits

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump and Republicans’ refusal to come to the table and solve the impending healthcare crisis while also manufacturing a hunger crisis by refusing to fund SNAP, as he and other presidents have done in previous shutdowns. Leader Schumer also called for Leader Thune to “do the right thing” and let the Senate vote on Senator Hawley’s or Senator Lujan’s bill to fund SNAP throughout the shutdown. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

We are just three days away from open enrollment and three days away from the biggest healthcare crisis America has seen in a generation.

Right now, millions of Americans – at this moment, all day today – are getting sticker shock as the so-called window-shopping period has begun. American families are seeing that, due to Republican obstruction, they will end up having to pay tens of thousands of dollars more each year for healthcare, seeing their premiums triple, quadruple, or more just to afford a basic need like health insurance.

And what is Donald Trump doing? He’s ignoring one colossal healthcare crisis, while manufacturing another: a hunger crisis. In a matter of days, SNAP benefits will run out for 42 million Americans. And let’s be very clear: this does not need to happen. This is on Donald Trump’s shoulders. He can immediately provide SNAP benefits as every president has done in the past.

Every single president was not so cruel and heartless to hold those hungry children, hungry elderly, and hungry veterans as hostages. But Donald Trump, who is a cold, heartless individual, who only cares about advancing himself, is doing it for the first time in American history. Never before in American history – not once under a Democratic president or a Republican president – has SNAP funding lapsed during a shutdown. Not even in 2019, during Trump’s last shutdown. In fact, Trump himself funded SNAP throughout that shutdown.

So, this argument that he can't do it and that he doesn’t have the money and that it’s not legal is just bull. It’s self-serving, nasty, vicious bull to try take the most needy people in our society who don’t have food right now – it could be a middle-class person who lost their job or it could be an elderly person who has healthcare costs – and say to hell with you. Trump is saying to them, I need you to be my hostage for political purposes because I don't want to provide healthcare for the American people.

Just weeks ago, Trump’s own U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed in writing that contingency funds – about $6 billion in emergency reserves – were “available to fund participant benefits.” That's not Democrats saying that. That's the Republican-appointed U.S. Department of Agriculture saying, again, $6 billion in emergency reserves were, “available to fund participant benefits.” But then, suddenly, after USDA said it, Trump ordered the Department of Agriculture to rip up the contingency plan – literally delete it from their website, it’s a big lie that they can't do it – and told them not to use the emergency funds. No explanation. No justification. Just plain cruelty from a man who only serves himself.

Donald Trump is picking politics over the lives of hungry kids. He is weaponizing hunger – turning millions of children, seniors, and veterans into political pawns to score points in his shutdown fight. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless politician and a heartless man, and that's why he doesn't care about cutting off food aid to hungry kids. And of course, what he's doing is totally unprecedented.

Let’s not forget who it affects. Two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, seniors, or people with disabilities. That’s who Trump is cutting off – kids who rely on school meals, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans trying to get by. That’s why every single president in history continued SNAP funding during a shutdown. Instead, what does Trump do? He is focused on $40 billion to bail out Argentina, rather than how to keep SNAP benefits flowing for Americans here at home.

And don’t give me the lie that this can’t be done legally. Every single president – Republican, Democrat and Trump himself in 2019 – has used these funds during shutdowns to keep SNAP running. Trump’s own administration asserted that these emergency funds could be used to keep SNAP benefits flowing in a shutdown, and the Government Accountability Office, that’s nonpartisan, confirmed it. The USDA also can use the same transfer authority they used to keep WIC afloat in October to move money over to SNAP for November. To claim otherwise is a bold lie.

Republicans are on a crusade to kill SNAP. They tried to do it in their “Big, Beautiful Bill.” They don’t like funding hungry children. They say to the most needy in society, we don't give a damn about you. In fact, we'll use you as political pawns.

Trump and Republicans spent their entire summer slashing SNAP by a historic $200 billion – why? To pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Now they’re doubling down, using the shutdown to further devastate families and leave kids hungry.

But Democrats will not stand by while Trump manufactures a hunger crisis. We’re ready to work in whatever way to solve this issue. There is a bill in the works right now from Senator Hawley – a conservative Republican – that could ensure SNAP is funded. It has Republican and Democratic support. It’s a bill I’d happily support and vote for. And as soon as Leader Thune lets Senator Hawley put it on the floor, it will pass, plain and simple.

But that’s not the only option, of course. This week, Senate Democrats – led by my friend, Senator Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico – will introduce legislation to fully fund SNAP and WIC – and WIC, going better than Hawley’s bill – to protect hungry kids, pregnant women, veterans, and working parents.

This bill is simple. It’s moral. It’s urgent. And I ask Leader Thune why he won’t put it on the floor. He decries the fact that SNAP benefits are cut off. He knows the money is available. He knows there's broad Republican support for it, and he doesn't put it on the floor.

We Democrats are ready to act. We will push to pass the Luján bill. We will vote for the Hawley bill if Leader Thune does the right thing and puts it on the floor before the weekend, before families lose their benefits, before holidays turn into a hunger crisis.

We are ready to act. We are ready to work with anyone – Republicans or Democrats – who’s willing to stop this cruelty. But Senate Republicans, especially Leader Thune, have to find the courage to stand up to Trump. Right now, they’re frozen – paralyzed by fear, by cynicism – while millions of Americans wonder how they’ll feed their families.

So, I say to my Republican colleagues: don’t block the Hawley bill. Put it on the floor, Leader Thune. Don’t block the Luján bill, which goes even better. Don’t let politics outweigh compassion. Let’s stop this hunger shutdown. Let’s stop this shutdown. Let’s stop the shutdown Republicans caused using hungry people as pawns. Let’s feed our people. And let’s end this hunger crisis before it begins.

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