Today is Day 23 of the federal government shutdown.
Hill Updates
Today, the Senate Republicans brought up for a vote a bill that would have paid some federal employees during the shutdown, including service members. The measure failed to garner the votes necessary. Democrats argued that the bill would give the president broad authority to determine who gets paid and who doesn't. They offered their own pair of bills that would have paid all federal workers, but Republicans objected.
For the first time, the Senate will not hold a vote on the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) to reopen and fund the government through November 21. The Senate is also unlikely to hold a vote tomorrow. There is growing recognition that Nov 21 is not enough time for Congress to pass full spending bills, so Republican leaders are considering other options. Some suggest voting on a CR to keep the government open until late January, while some GOP lawmakers are even talking about a stopgap through next September or longer.
This means that the shutdown is all but guaranteed to continue. Many experts anticipate it could last through October into November.
Polls show that nearly 90 percent of Americans believe the shutdown is at least a “minor problem,” and more than half see it as a “major one,” according to an AP-NORC poll out last week.
Impacts
All eyes are on the SNAP and WIC programs, which are set to run out of funding in a matter of days.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps feed more than 40 million people, will start to run out of funds Nov. 1, USDA is warning. At least 25 states plan to cut off benefits starting on that date. There is no firm indication the Trump administration will act to patch the impending SNAP lapse. Democrats want USDA to deploy a SNAP contingency fund that currently holds about $5 billion to offset the roughly $9 billion in funding needed to cover costs for November.
Virginia Gov. Youngkin (R) declared a state of emergency Thursday, in a move to backstop the SNAP program. Virginia and other states are scrambling to find a backup plan. Other states have said they don’t have enough money in their state budgets to make up for the billions that the federal government spends to keep the program afloat.
The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is also at risk starting November 1 after the White House moved to use some tariff revenue as a backfill early in the shutdown.