Durbin Slams Senate Republicans, Trump USDA For Blocking SNAP Funds For 42 Million Americans

Durbin Slams Senate Republicans, Trump USDA For Blocking SNAP Funds For 42 Million Americans

"The House has not held a vote since September 19. President Trump is tearing down part of the White House to build a new lavish $300 million ballroom…The Trump Administration sees those efforts as priorities, but it will not send our most vulnerable American citizens $6 a day to afford to eat," Durbin said in his speech on the Senate floor

WASHINGTON - In a speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, criticized congressional Republicans for continuing their shutdown as 42 million Americans are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits. Despite the Trump Administration's recent claims, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has between $8 and $9 billion in funds to pay out SNAP benefits to Americans for the month of November.

"Forty-two million Americans, one out of eight people in our population, need help putting food on the table. And so the SNAP program doesn't sound extremely generous. It's $6 a day. Imagine if you had to feed yourself with that amount of money each day, the sacrifices you would make," Durbin began.

In his remarks, Durbin called out Senate Republicans for blocking U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján's (D-NM) legislation that would prevent the Trump Administration from withholding available funds for SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Durbin, as well as the rest of the Senate Democratic Caucus, is a cosponsor of Luján's Keep SNAP and WIC Funding Act.

"So Senator Luján came to the floor… to ensure there would be no gaps in coverage, and people would still get their SNAP [benefits] starting November 1," Durbin said. "Do you know what happened when he came to the floor? There was an objection. The objection came from the Republican Leader of the Senate [John Thune (R-SD)]."

"He [Majority Leader Thune] was asked if he would approve Senator Luján's effort to protect all the SNAP recipients across the United States, and…he objected," Durbin said. "He had a chance, with Senator Luján's bill, to make sure there would be no suffering of anybody across America because of the [lapse of the] SNAP program."

Durbin addressed Republicans' argument that it is "illegal" to use USDA's emergency funds to pay out SNAP benefits to the Americans that rely on the program. Durbin pointed out that the Trump Administration, during the 2018-2019 shutdown, continued to pay out SNAP benefits. Additionally, just days ago, USDA included text on its website explaining that these available emergency funds would be used to keep the program running during the shutdown. However, the webpage has since been removed, and the Trump Administration is now asserting that it will allow 42 million Americans to lose access to the program.

"[Republicans] said it would illegal, in a government shutdown, to feed 16 million kids, 8 million seniors, and 4 million with disabilities during a shutdown. Well, the last record shutdown under President Trump, in his first term, went for 35 days. He kept the SNAP program going. Was he doing it illegally?" Durbin said. "I think not."

"In fact, the Trump Administration, on their own website, acknowledged that they were going to make this payment even with the government shut down. We have copies of it. Guess what happened to that assertion on their website? It disappeared," Durbin said.

"So a program they used under the first Trump Administration, a program that they said they could follow again under this second Trump Administration and second Trump shutdown, disappeared magically from the website. So, across America, some 42 million people, 12 percent of our population, will not be able to put food on the table because of a decision by the Trump Administration not to feed Americans," Durbin continued. "Of all the priorities, wouldn't you think that keeping our population, the poorest among us, the neediest among us, with food on the tabled would be the highest priority?"

Durbin contrasted the Trump Administration's refusal to assist working American families against the President's choice to send $40 billion in support to Argentina, which further harms American farmers' as they struggle to sell their soybean crop because of the President's disastrous trade policies.

"It seems like the President came up with the money for Argentina, when he said Argentina was in a terrible economic situation. He was going to send $20 billion of American taxpayer dollars to Argentina… Then [he found] $20 billion in the private sector to also go to Argentina. There was plenty of money for Argentina, but not enough money to pay for the SNAP program," Durbin continued. "How can that be? Yet it is the reality."

"We have two million recipients of SNAP in my home state of Illinois, and we know we can take care of them. The Trump Administration is making the choice. They have the resources. They have the authority. They just don't have the political will to take care of the problem," Durbin said. "The President seems to be able to find money for things that are important to him. Obviously, SNAP [beneficiaries] are not important to the President."

Durbin shared stories from his own constituents who rely on SNAP to put food on the table.

"I recently heard from Michelle from Hodgkins, Illinois… Here's what she said: 'You're forgetting about the seniors that are 60 to 65. I already cut down my meals to two a day. I really don't want to try to live on one meal. I take medicine, and I need to eat. My size shows I've not been eating. I know for a fact many eat cereal for dinner. It's filling and cheap,'" Durbin quoted his constituent.

"Here's another message from Martin in Macomb: 'I am on SNAP due to a disability-epilepsy as well as some others. I rely on SNAP as well as [Social Security] and [Disability payments] to survive… Most of the people in my building rely on SNAP to pay for food. I am worried about how I will be able to afford food on November 1,'" Durbin said. "Sadly, there are millions of other individuals who will suffer in silence because they receive this assistance."

Durbin then exposed Republicans' hypocrisy as the House of Representatives has been absent for more than five weeks despite House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) claiming that congressional Republicans want to end the shutdown.

"Meanwhile, for the past six weeks, Republican members of the House of Representatives have been gone. I'm not sure what they're doing. I hope they're home, at least tending to their constituents. But they should be in Washington. If we were to pass [Senator] Ben Ray Luján's proposal yesterday to fund the SNAP program, we would have needed action by the House of Representatives. But it's not here," Durbin said.

"The House has not held a vote since September 19. President Trump is tearing down part of the White House to build a new lavish $300 million ballroom. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem found $200 million during the shutdown to buy two luxury gulf stream jets for her and her top staff. The Trump Administration sees those efforts as priorities, but it will not send our most vulnerable American citizens $6 a day to afford to eat," Durbin continued.

This summer, the Republican-led Congressed also jammed through the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which axed Medicaid funding by $1 trillion and slashed SNAP by 20 percent-the biggest cut to the program in history.

"So the program [SNAP] that they are now refusing to fund at all was reduced dramatically to make it more difficult to pay out [benefits] to SNAP recipients under the 'Big Beautiful Bill.' They made the biggest cuts in the history of SNAP, cutting the program by 20 percent. And now they're lamenting on the floor that they just can't pay anything at all," Durbin continued. "It's another example of cruelty to the people who are vulnerable by this Administration."

Durbin concluded his remarks by calling for another vote on Senator Luján's Keep SNAP and WIC Funding Act before November 1.

"I hope my Republican colleagues will allow us the opportunity to vote on Senator Luján's bill today before we leave. Let's make sure there's no gap in the program, and let's put away this argument that somehow, it's illegal to feed people," Durbin said.

Video of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

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