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Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said Sunday that Democrats “need to own” the current government shutdown amid a fight over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding.
“Well, I mean, for me, fundamentally, I’m deeply, deeply distressing to know that 42 millions Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits,” Fetterman told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
“And, now, that’s one of the big reasons why I refused to shutting our government down. And, again, I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown. I mean, we’re shutting it down. I know why — they claim — because they want to address the tax credits.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and other Democrats went after the Trump administration on Friday in the wake of a judge directing the federal government to free up emergency funds for SNAP during the shutdown.
On Friday, a federal judge shot down arguments that the emergency funds can be employed only for hurricanes or other unmanageable catastrophes, ruling in favor of more than 20 states led by Democrats that sued the administration.
“Two federal judges just ruled the Trump Admin MUST use emergency funds to continue providing SNAP benefits during the shutdown,” Van Hollen wrote on the social platform X.
“They tried to use hungry kids as political pawns instead of coming to the table to reopen the government. Shameful,” he added.
On Friday, President Trump signaled he would fund SNAP if pointed in “the appropriate legal direction.”
“Our Government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
