“President Trump just Truthed out that he’s very anxious to get this done,” Bessent told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday about addressing the funding lapse.
“There’s a process that has to be followed. So we got to figure out what the process is. President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefit.”
Last week, a Rhode Island-based federal judge ordered the Department of Agriculture to tap into an emergency fund to make partial payments to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which ran out of funds Saturday due to the government shutdown.
The judge directed the Trump administration to make partial payments for SNAP by Wednesday.Previously, the Department of Agriculture penned a memo saying it didn’t have the legal authority to tap into that funding for SNAP.
Bessent explained that Trump has no intention of challenging that ruling and urged Democrats to reopen the government to avoid the SNAP shortfall.
“The best way for SNAP benefits to get paid is for five Democrats to cross the aisle and reopen the government,” he said.
More than 42 million Americans receive SNAP monthly, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture.
Trump had posted on Truth Social Friday that, “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”
The government has been shut down since the start of October due to a stalemate on funding.
On more than a dozen occasions, Senate Democrats have leveraged the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster to block a “clean” House-passed, GOP-backed spending patch to reopen the government.
In exchange for reopening the government, Democrats have demanded that Republicans back an estimated $1.5 trillion worth of spending over the next decade to reverse GOP-championed Medicaid reforms and the enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
The impasse has resulted in critical programs such as SNAP and Women, Infants & Children (WIC) depleting their prior funds. The contingency fund is likely only able to keep SNAP afloat for a few more weeks.
Trump has also moved money around the pay the troops.
The impasse has resulted in critical programs such as SNAP and Women, Infants & Children (WIC) depleting their prior funds. The contingency fund is likely only able to keep SNAP afloat for a few more weeks.
Having grown increasingly frustrated with Senate Democrats’ use of the filibuster, Trump has publicly called on Republicans to use the “nuclear option” and eliminate the 60-vote threshold.
But there is little appetite among Senate Republicans to do that, due to fears that it will eliminate a key check on Democrats the next time they control the Senate.
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