Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said what many Americans are thinking when she admitted the government had “failed you” in a Friday press conference with Speaker Mike Johnson.
“If you are in a position where you cannot feed your family, and you are relying on that $187 a month for an average family in the SNAP program, we have failed you,” said Rollins, 53, before trying to insist Republicans really do want to get those SNAP benefits out and Democrats won’t let them.
After nervously nodding along for the rest of her statement, Johnson, 53, jumped in to say, “To clarify, when she says ‘We have failed you,’ she means ‘We, the Democrats.’”
Republicans’ latest shutdown blame game tactic is saying Democratic senators are taking food away from Americans by not agreeing to the Republicans’ budget bill and reopening the government. Democrats are holding out on signing the budget bill until Republicans include extensions for ACA subsidies.
SNAP benefits, which feed 42 million Americans struggling with food safety, are set to expire on November 1 as a result of the government shutdown.
Republicans have been twisting themselves into knots falsely insisting that it’s impossible for the government to extend SNAP benefits unless Democrats vote for their budget bill, but there are multiple routes the government could take to extend SNAP benefits. Republicans have refused to entertain them.
Earlier in the press conference, Rollins argued that the USDA’s contingency fund legally can’t be tapped to extend SNAP benefits because of the shutdown.
“There is a contingency fund at USDA—it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded. It is called a contingency fund. By law, contingency fund can only flow when the underlying fund is flowing,” she said.
Commenters on X have argued that a contingency fund that doesn’t work in the event of an emergency lapse of funding defeats the purpose of a contingency fund.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Secretary Rollins for comment.
There has also been bipartisan support for patch bills to ensure SNAP benefits continue. Democrat Senator Ben Ray Luján and Republican Senator Josh Hawley have both introduced resolutions to keep SNAP benefits flowing during the shutdown, and Republicans have blocked them.
President Donald Trump could shift funds to keep SNAP running. The USDA has signaled it won’t do that, arguing it doesn’t want to prioritize SNAP benefits over other programs it is continuing to fund, such as the WIC and school lunch programs.
Furthermore, on Thursday, Mike Johnson admitted that refusing to fund SNAP is a political ploy by Republicans to pressure Dems to pass their budget bill.
Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, who asked why Republicans couldn’t “move money around to feed people,” Johnson replied, “Because if you deviate from the goal of reopening the entire government, Chuck Schumer and the radicals over there will continue to play games. If you do just part of this, it will reduce the pressure for them to do all of it.”
As per the administration’s tradition, Rollins wrapped up her statement by sucking up to Trump, saying, “All day, every day, seven days a week, 20 hours a day. This is what he is thinking about. As the world greatest dealmaker—as the world’s greatest dealmaker, from his perspective, as a businessman, how do we end this nonsense and how do we again open the government and support these families that need support?”
During Rollins’ statement, Trump was flying to Mar-a-Lago after a week of being guided around Asia by world leaders.
