Barring an unexpected end to the government shutdown, Congress should pass legislation to ensure that roughly 42 million Americans will not lose federal food assistance on Nov. 1, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said.
“The government has been shut down for 28 days and counting,” Hawley wrote in a New York Times opinion column Tuesday.
“That’s 28 days too long … and Saturday will be another grim milestone. That is the day about 42 million Americans will lose federal food assistance.”
Hawley last week filed legislation to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will continue to be funded despite the ongoing federal shutdown.
In his column, Hawley argued that the shutdown has already harmed “countless lives” — from unpaid air traffic controllers to Capitol Police officers — and said Congress must not “introduce an entirely new stage of suffering” by letting food benefits lapse.
“America is a great and wealthy nation, and our most important wealth is our generosity of spirit. We help those in need,” he wrote.
“We provide for the widow and the orphan. Love of neighbor is part of who we are.”
“The Scripture’s injunction to ‘remember the poor’ is a principle Americans have lived by. It’s time Congress does the same.”
Hawley said SNAP, also known as food stamps, provides essential relief to families, veterans, and the disabled.
Roughly 1.2 million veterans rely on the program, and eligibility is generally capped at 130% of the federal poverty line, or about $42,000 for a family of four.
“For these good people,” Hawley wrote, “food assistance is not an optional extra. They need it to feed their children.”
Hawley framed his appeal as both moral and practical, citing inflation that has outpaced wages and left “most families in America poorer than five years ago.”
He said that ensuring no child goes hungry “costs only about a tenth of our annual defense budget.”
According to Politico, the looming “food-aid cliff” has become a major pressure point in the shutdown fight between President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Democrats.
The Department of Agriculture has warned that funds for SNAP will begin running out Nov. 1, forcing at least 25 states, including heavily blue California, to halt benefits.
Democrats have resisted GOP efforts to reopen the government without extending Obamacare subsidies, which expired when funding lapsed.
Axios reported that the Agriculture Department told states they would not be reimbursed if they tried to fund SNAP on their own. The agency’s memo said contingency funds must be reserved for “true emergencies,” such as hurricanes or floods, not shutdowns.
Hawley has sharply criticized that stance, saying both parties are failing those most in need.
“Republicans blame Democrats, and Democrats blame Republicans,” he wrote. “But all these people have food to spare.”
“One suspects that if senators couldn’t buy groceries, the government would never close down again.”
Hawley ended his column with a moral appeal.
“The character of a nation is revealed not in quarterly profits or C.E.O. pay, but in how it treats the small and forgotten — the last, the least, the lost,” he wrote.
“America is a great nation precisely because we have loved our neighbors as ourselves. Congress should live up to that legacy now.”
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