{"id":3465,"date":"2025-11-09T14:48:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/?p=3465"},"modified":"2025-11-09T14:48:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T14:48:39","slug":"usdas-rollins-rips-democrats-over-lie-about-snap-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/?p=3465","title":{"rendered":"USDA\u2019s Rollins Rips Democrats Over \u2018Lie\u2019 About SNAP Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Democrats have spent the last several weeks of the Schumer Shutdown claiming the USDA has contingency funding it could use to keep food stamp benefits flowing beyond Nov. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) made that argument again Wednesday, saying the administration \u201chas the funding to make sure that not a single American on November 1st or beyond goes hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey have the money,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cBut they are choosing to withhold funding for SNAP because they want to punish hungry children, hungry veterans, hungry seniors, hungry women, and hungry families as part of their continued effort to hurt everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a House GOP press conference Friday, however, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins sharply pushed back, calling Jeffries\u2019 claim an outright lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event also focused on addressing waste, fraud, and abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, efforts that Democrats in both chambers have opposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rollins said the controversy has exposed how Democrats\u2019 self-image as \u201cthe party of the people\u201d has collapsed, calling their supposed defense of SNAP \u201creduced to cynical control over people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe fact that the Democrats are saying, \u2018But wait, USDA has money in their accounts\u2019 \u2026 is a lie,\u201d Rollins said during the news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8WATCH: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins explains why the Trump administration cannot keep SNAP benefits going if the government remains shut down. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CnLKeh1Non\">pic.twitter.com\/CnLKeh1Non<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Off The Press (@OffThePress1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OffThePress1\/status\/1984264768257978676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 31, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She confirmed that the USDA had twice notified state administrators in October that SNAP benefits would end Nov. 1 if Congress failed to fund the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rollins also said the $5.3 billion contingency fund cited by Democrats was not enough to cover the $9.2 billion needed for November benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is a contingency fund at USDA,\u201d Rollins said. \u201cBut it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She explained that the appropriations bills for SNAP and other programs remain stalled because the Senate has not passed the House\u2019s stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21 and allow negotiations to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, the USDA cannot release contingency funds without Congress first approving the underlying funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Republicans say the real issue is Democrats\u2019 refusal to reopen the government and pass the clean continuing resolution approved by the House on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funding programs like SNAP, they argue, is Congress\u2019s duty \u2014 not the USDA\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Democrats, meanwhile, have voted 14 times in the Senate to block reopening the government, citing demands over healthcare for illegal immigrants and the continuation of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the legal fight took a dramatic turn late Friday when two federal judges \u2014 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island \u2014 ordered the Trump administration to release the USDA\u2019s emergency reserves to help fund November SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rulings rejected the agency\u2019s position that the contingency fund could not be used during the shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. District Judges Indira Talwani and John McConnell, both appointed by former President Barack Obama, said the USDA had the authority to tap roughly $5.3 billion in reserves, even if that amount wouldn\u2019t fully cover November benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also noted the administration could pull from nearly $17 billion in additional accounts to avoid benefit cuts, though officials have argued that doing so would impact other nutrition programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no doubt that the contingency funds are appropriated funds that are necessary to carry out the program\u2019s operation,\u201d McConnell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Talwani added that the administration \u201cmay supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds \u2026 to avoid any reductions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even with the court orders, USDA officials warned that state systems may not be able to restart SNAP payments immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SNAP benefits were supposed to start going out Nov. 1, but the scramble to comply with the rulings could cause delays for millions of families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll the Democrats have to do is say, let\u2019s go,\u201d President Donald Trump said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have to do anything \u2014 all they have to do is say the government is open.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats have spent the last several weeks of the Schumer Shutdown claiming the USDA has contingency funding it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3467,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465\/revisions\/3467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}