Donald Trump and his party have a problem. They used spending authority to pay the troops, but are refusing to use that same authority to provide SNAP assistance to 41.7 million children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
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The Department of Agriculture has a $5 billion emergency fund that it could use to fund the program in November. The Department’s 2026 fiscal plan confirmed that the USDA has the authority to release the funds.
The Trump administration removed the 2026 fiscal plan from the USDA website and issued new guidance stating that the funds could not be released.
However, the administration used the same authority to pay military personnel.
SNAP is a mandatory entitlement program that has its own congressionally appropriated emergency fund.
The USDA previously had guidance on its website that it admitted that the intent of Congress was for the program to continue, even during a government shutdown: “Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue.”
The contingency funds that Trump is refusing to release were created “to ensure that the state can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown.”
Republicans and the Trump administration can’t defend this sudden and unjustified reversal, so they have decided to get mad.
Speaker Mike Johnson has painted his party into a corner. Senate Democrats have proposed legislation to force the release of the funds for SNAP and WIC, but since Johnson closed the House and refuses to bring it back into session, he has offered a nonsensical double standard for why Republicans are going to starve people.
Read more and watch the video of Johnson below.
