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SNAP food benefits for around 42 million Americans could resume as early as Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday morning, after two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds during the government shutdown. The action follows rulings on Friday by federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island directing the administration to draw on emergency resources to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme payments. Judge Jack McConnell of Rhode Island also instructed that the funds be provided “as soon as possible,” CNBC reported. Boston Judge Indira Talwani gave the administration until Monday to inform her whether it will authorise at least reduced SNAP benefits for November. The aid was originally set to be cut off on November 1. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bessent said the administration would not appeal the court ruling, while adding that finding the funds to pay SNAP benefits by Wednesday “could be” done. “There’s a process that has to be followed. So, we’ve got to figure out what the process is,” the Treasury secretary said. On Friday, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the govt was exploring options to restart SNAP. “I do NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT,” the President wrote. “Therefore, I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”
Government shutdown enters sixth week as parties remain deadlocked
Republicans and Democrats remained at a stalemate on the govt shutdown as it entered its sixth week, with food aid for millions of Americans potentially delayed or suspended and President Donald Trump urging GOP leaders to change Senate rules to end it. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday that Trump had spoken to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson as he publicly pressed for an end to the Senate filibuster. Republicans have strongly rejected Trump’s calls since his first term, arguing that the rule requiring 60 votes to overcome objections in the Senate is vital to the institution and has allowed them to block Democratic policies when they are in the minority. Leavitt said that the Democrats are “crazed people” who haven’t shown any signs of budging. “That’s why President Trump has said Republicans need to get tough, they need to get smart, and they need to use this option to get rid of the filibuster, to reopen the government and do right by the American public,” Leavitt said on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News. Democrats have voted thirteen times against reopening the govt, denying Republicans the votes in the 53-47 Senate as they insist on negotiations to extend govt health care subsidies that will be cut off at the end of the year.
Will this shutdown cross the longest deadlock?
Republicans say they will not negotiate until the govt is reopened. With the two parties at a standstill, the shutdown, now in its 33rd day, appears likely to become the longest in history. The previous record was set in 2019, when Trump demanded that Congress give him money for a US-Mexico border wall. Republicans are hoping that at least some Democrats will eventually give them the votes they need as they hold repeated votes on a bill to reopen the govt. “We need five with a backbone to say we care more about the lives of the American people than about gaining some political leverage,” Thune said on the Senate floor as the Senate left Washington for the weekend on Thursday.
