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Republicans battling behind scenes over funding SNAP during shutdown
Cracks are forming in the Senate GOP conference over whether benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be allowed to lapse this weekend.
Republicans have been unified throughout the shutdown in voting 13 times for a House-passed bill to reopen the government, but there are divisions on the SNAP issue, which could leave millions without crucial benefits.
Expiration of food assistance funding is expected to impact nearly 42 million Americans across the country, including millions of people in Republican-represented states.
“I think we got to find some way to get help to 40 million people. This Saturday is going to be bad. It’s going to be really bad,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), referring to the expiration of SNAP funding this weekend.
Hawley has introduced a bill, the Keep SNAP Funded Act, to provide funding to provide uninterrupted SNAP benefits, retroactive to the start of the shutdown. The legislation already has 14 Republican co-sponsors — a healthy fraction of the Senate GOP conference.
But a number of Republicans oppose extending SNAP during a shutdown they blame on Democrats. They think Democrats, in blocking the House GOP funding bill, are the ones to blame for any lapse in SNAP.
Vice President Vance told Republican senators at a meeting Tuesday that they should avoid voting on “rifle-shot” bills to fund different parts of the federal government, such as SNAP, during the shutdown.
Republicans want the pressure to be on Democrats to end the shutdown. Democrats say they blocked the GOP legislation because they want subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at year’s end to be extended.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says she wants to keep SNAP benefits flowing during the shutdown, even though the looming lapse in food assistance funding is putting tremendous pressure on Senate Democrats to vote for a "clean" continuing resolution to reopen government.
“I’d like to figure out a way to make sure SNAP benefits continue uninterrupted,” she told........
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