TODAY: For The First Time In American History, President Trump & Senate Republicans Plan To Deny Funding For SNAP For 42 MILLION Americans; Senate Democrats Push To Fully Fund[...]

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats went on an all-out push to fully fund SNAP and WIC during the Republican shutdown. The Trump administration has threatened to let over 42 million Americans go hungry right before the holidays - despite their ability to fully pay for the program and legal obligation to do so.

Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) today asked for unanimous consent for the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025, which would ensure that the approximately 42 million Americans who receive SNAP and 7 million pregnant women and new moms who receive WIC aid will see their benefits continue uninterrupted until the shutdown ends. Republican Leader John Thune (R-SD) objected.

President Trump forced the Department of Agriculture to abandon their shutdown contingency plan-making this Saturday the first time in American history SNAP benefits will lapse for hungry children, veterans, seniors, and other Americans. President Trump has manufactured a crisis, snapping the backs of American food aid recipients for his political gain.

Below, see social content and remarks from Leader Schumer on SNAP.

Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Donald Trump Selling Out The American People Through Failed Trade Negotiations With China, Announcing Democrats Will Force More Votes To End Trump's Disastrous Trade War

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Donald Trump's tasteless trip to Asia where he has been gallivanting around while the U.S. remains in a government shutdown, and his continued efforts to sell out the American people with failed trade policies and inability to negotiate with China. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

As we enter the 29^th day of the government shutdown, where is Donald Trump? He is gallivanting in Asia, dancing in Malaysia.

He is preparing now to meet with President Xi of China to strike a trade deal that will sell out the American people, give away vital national security tools, in exchange for little more than a photo op.

President Trump is about to congratulate himself, patting himself hard on the back, for cleaning up a mess that he created.

Again, President Trump is about to congratulate himself for cleaning up a mess that he created. It's amazing what this guy does.

It's the same story with his so-called "deal" with South Korea. We are actually worse off because tariffs on Korean imports went from 2% now to 15%. But Donald Trump created a mess and now wants credit for pretending like he fixed it.

On China, Donald Trump's trade negotiations with China have been a failure. His actions have decimated soybean farmers. He has hurt small businesses.

And has any of this revived American manufacturing? No!

China is still flooding global markets with subsidized goods and still stealing American technologies to undercut U.S. firms and workers. Meanwhile, we have lost tens of thousands of American manufacturing jobs this year.

This is Trump's M.O. in foreign policy. He creates a giant mess. Then he wants everyone to praise him when he tries to clean it up and ignore the damage that he has inflicted. He creates the mess, tries to clean it up, and pats himself on the back when we're no better off than when we started.

Now, in anticipation of today's meeting with President Trump and President Xi, Senate Democrats are demanding that President Trump not negotiate away America and our allies' national security. He is using the most advanced semiconductor chips - which China doesn't have - as a bargaining chip. China is desperate to get these chips. If Trump gives these away, China will dominate the world of AI in a few short years, and Americans will pay an awful price.

Where are our China hawks on the Republican side decrying this? Where are they? Because these chips are vital, and it's American technology that has produced them. American companies make them. China is desperate to get them because it will make them the leader in AI in a few years -the most dominant technology in the world. And Trump is willing to give away those crown jewels so he can say he has a deal and undo the mess that he created with tariffs.

Donald Trump's chip deal is not America first, but China first - putting China first over the next decade in what is the most crucial technology facing the world. Americans will regret that move for generations. Historians will note it as one of the turning points where America became not the primary power in the world, but secondary to China. And it's all because Trump wants an immediate press hit to say, hey, I have a deal, even though that deal doesn't move us forward at all and cleans up the mess he created.

Now, President Trump's trip to the Asian continent could have been a real opportunity to make progress with America's vital trading partners. He could have used this trip to end his reckless trade war, to stop alienating our allies, to show strength and unite our allies against the Chinese Communist Party, and, most importantly, to help Americans struggling with high costs here at home. But so far, his trip has been a total dud. By the end of his trip to Asia, it could be the case that we somehow have higher tariffs on our neighbor Canada than we do against our biggest rival China. How on earth does that make sense?

In fact, the biggest news out of this trip is that Donald Trump seems to have realized he can't run for a third term. That just goes to show you how fruitless this trip has been.

American families are facing enough problems right now, with the nightmare of open enrollment, the pain of higher groceries, the prices of everything from cars to home appliances to electricity skyrocketing. The last thing they want is to turn on the TV and see Trump being gifted a golden crown and then signing a deal with China that royally screws over Americans.

Trump's trade war has been an utter disaster from the start. It's been a nightmare for our allies, for our economy, for our families, who are paying more because of the Trump tariff tax.

I'm proud the Senate came together in a bipartisan vote, 52-48, to end Trump's tariffs on Brazil yesterday. The tariffs he put on Brazil were simply because he's angry that the Brazilian government is prosecuting a friend of his, a guy who's MAGA just like him. Isn't that amazing? That's why he put Trump tariffs on Brazil. That's why Americans are paying more for their cup of coffee in the morning, because Trump wants to embrace and help a MAGA right-wing guy who's being prosecuted by the legitimate Brazilian government? It's amazing.

And this week we'll have more resolutions this week to push back on Trump's trade war and help stop the bleeding.

Our Republican colleagues will have a choice: stand with Trump's idiotic, disastrous, and often juvenile-inspired tariffs or stand with American families and vote to lower costs for the people back home.

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TRANSCRIPT: Leader Schumer Remarks Slamming The GOP For Manufacturing A Hunger Crisis And Demanding SNAP And WIC Are Funded To Protect Seniors, Children, Veterans And Families From Losing Food Assistance

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today joined Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) to demand President Trump and Senate Republicans fund SNAP and WIC during the ongoing government shutdown - warning that their threats to not do so - despite their regulatory authority - would cause 42 million Americans to lose food assistance for the first time in history. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks:

Leader Schumer: Right now, we're staring down the barrel at two crises at once - a healthcare crisis and a hunger crisis - and both are caused by one man, Donald Trump. We're now three days from open enrollment. Today the window shopping begins. People are going to see drastic increases in their healthcare costs. People are going to sit at the dinner table Friday night with a hole in the pit of their stomach and say, how are we going to do this? We can't afford another four or five thousand dollars a year, ten thousand, even twenty in some cases for healthcare. How are we going to do without healthcare, but how are we going to pay for healthcare? And now, for the first time in history, a president, Donald Trump, is refusing to fund SNAP during a shutdown. Forty-two million Americans - hungry children, middle class families, veterans, senior citizens who struggle to pay for their food - all of these people will lose their SNAP benefits, not because the money's gone, not because it's not permitted, because Donald Trump ordered it stopped. Donald Trump is a vindictive politician and a heartless man. Let's be clear, this does not need to happen. Never before, under any president, Democrat or Republican, has SNAP been cut off in a shutdown, and Trump knows he can do it.

Here's what he said: "Yeah, everybody is going to be in good shape, yup." Donald Trump, when asked if he would fund SNAP next month. That's what he said this October. But then all of a sudden, seeing how badly they're losing on healthcare, he decided to use these forty-two million innocent Americans as pawns. Back in 2016 - here's Sonny Perdue, the Agriculture Secretary: @SonnyPerdue: At the direction of @POTUS, we've announced a plan to fully fund SNAP benefits for February, despite Congress' inability to send the President an appropriations bill that secures our borders. We're doing right and feeding everyone. They funded it under Trump in the last shutdown, rather 2019, January 8th, 2019, they funded it. So don't believe the bull, and I hope in every story you will write, that they can fund it on their own.

And I'll tell you something else: John Thune is responsible. The Hawley bill now has eleven Republican co-sponsors and many, many Democrats, including myself, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Lujan. We have all sponsored, co-sponsored, the Hawley bill. Today, tomorrow, if John Thune would put it on the floor, it would pass overwhelmingly. But he's afraid of Trump. He's going along in this heartless, cruel thing with Trump. Just a few weeks ago, Trump's own U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed it had six billion dollars in emergency funding to keep food aid flowing. When asked about SNAP, at that point, here's what he said: "Yep, everybody's going to be in good shape." That means he's got the money, folks. And these Republican lies - plain and simple - that they don't have the money are lies. But they're vicious lies. They're hurtful lies. They're harmful lies.

Last Friday, all of a sudden, Trump ordered that the USDA delete the plan and refuse to use the money. No reason, no explanation - plain cruelty. Cruelty! That even Trump back in 2019 didn't do. But he's gotten so much worse, and so much meaner, and so much more desperate because he knows the American people are turning against him on healthcare, and as Amy will mention a little later, on SNAP as well.

So, Trump is weaponizing hunger. He's turning millions of children and seniors and veterans into political pawns. He's choosing politics over people, cruelty over compassion. And let's be clear about this - they've been on a crusade, the Republicans have been on a crusade against SNAP all year. They slashed it by 200 billion dollars this summer to pay for their tax cuts for billionaires. So, they've never wanted SNAP, and they don't want it now. But again, they're using these forty million innocent people as pawns. It's a disgrace. They can end it right now.

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Reporter: You've said that there are legislative solutions. Obviously, you said the administration should tap into the contingency fund, but come the weekend, if SNAP does run out, tens of millions of Americans will go hungry. Are you getting a sense from your Democratic colleagues that the pain of that and other aspects of the shutdown might outweigh this fight for-

Schumer: My Democratic colleagues are united in the fact that Trump and the administration can do this, not this weekend, tomorrow, today, right away. Every Democrat is a sponsor of Lujan's bill, and that's how we feel. Yes.

Reporter: Thank you so much. Irrespective of the dispute on whether the USDA contingency funds can be used for SNAP benefits-

Schumer: It is not. Wait a minute. Excuse me. It is not a dispute. It is fact they can use it, and the Republicans say it.

Reporter: Okay, but there's only $5 or $6 billion, and SNAP costs $8 billion monthly just to administer. I mean, if anything, it would only last-

Schumer: It does not cost $5 or $6 billion to administer. There's enough money to start feeding people right away. $6 billion is a lot of money, and they're using it for other things. $20 billion for Argentina, hundreds of millions for Kirsti Noem's plane. Who are we kidding here?

Reporter: Yes. What happens once it runs out? If it only lasts two, three weeks, do you pass the full thing?

Schumer: The bottom line is they can fund it just as in 2019, just as in other shutdowns, for a long period of time.

Senator Klobuchar: And they also, if the contingency fund, which is $6 billion, which gets you nearly a month, three weeks, runs out, then they can pass Senator Luján or Senator Hawley's bill, both of which we support. We know that there will be 60 votes for that. Why aren't they calling it up? They're not calling it up because the House isn't here to pass it. That's the way it works. The House would have to come here. They probably would have to vote on the Epstein files, but they're choosing to let kids go hungry instead of having to vote on the Epstein files. There's no doubt about it. They have been out for six weeks on vacation.

Schumer: Just think, if they have all this money for Argentina and all this money for other things, they have enough money to keep funding SNAP. And they know it. And I just want to say what Luján said. Johnson just lies. He lied about on immigration, on the undocumented. He's lying about this. He just outright lies, plain and simple. It is not illegal, and his own president has done it. Yes.

Reporter: Are talks ticking up, as you indicated, is there any conversation, any negotiation whatsoever happening behind the scenes? And if so, can you enlighten us on that?

Schumer: Yeah, there are occasional talks between Democrats and Republicans on this issue, but our Republican colleagues don't seem to be offering anything different than what their leadership has had so far. We hope that will change. Yes?

Reporter: Thank you I understand what you're saying about Republicans' options here for SNAP and the contingency funds, are you saying the Democrats have no responsibility for the fact that SNAP is not funded?

Schumer: We are saying the Republicans can fund it now, and they're using these people as hostages? Plain and simple. Next, that's the answer. The answer is they can fund it right now. Okay? Right now.

Reporter: On SNAP and on healthcare abroad -

Schumer: And by the way, we don't want to pit healthcare and food. They do. We think you can have both.

Reporter: Yes. On SNAP and on the ACA, Leader Thune said yesterday that he had just spoken to President Trump and that the President would be willing to sit down to meet next week to talk about ACA subsidies. Is that an acceptable offer for you? If the government is open by then, is that an acceptable offer for you?

Schumer: We've always said they always say do it later. Do it later. Later, to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter from the Birmingham jail, means never. They have had since March to do this. They've voted three times against it. So, this idea, do it later, been there, done that. We have to do it now. The window opens. Thank you, everybody. On this subject?

Reporter: On Mamdani. You going to vote for him?

Schumer: Look the bottom line is very simple. I have a good relationship with him, and we're continuing to talk.

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