WASHINGTON (AP) — Some senators know it. House Speaker Mike Johnson knows this. And with President Donald Trump back in Washington after his trip abroad, perhaps the White House knows it too.
For many, it is time for the government shutdown to end.
From coast to coast, the consequences of the dysfunction of a closed federal government are affecting our homes: Alaskans are stocking up on elk, caribou, and fish for the winter, even before SNAP food aid is scheduled to end. Maine residents fill their tanks with diesel to heat their homes, but wait for federal subsidies that are nowhere in sight.
Flights are being delayed with holiday travel just around the corner. Workers are left without pay. And Americans are getting their first glimpse of the rising health insurance costs that are at the center of the stalemate on Capitol Hill.
“People are stressed,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as food options in her state become scarce.
“It’s time to put this behind us.”
While quiet talks are underway, particularly among bipartisan senators, the shutdown is not expected to end before Saturday’s deadline, when Americans’ deep food insecurity — one in eight people rely on the government to have enough to eat — could become starkly evident if federal SNAP funds dry up.
Money for the army, but not for food aid
The White House has moved money to ensure the military is paid, but refuses to use funds for food aid. In fact, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” signed into law this summer, marked the most substantial cut ever made to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, and is expected to leave about 2.4 million people out of the program.
At the same time, many Americans who buy their own health insurance through the federal and state marketplaces, whose open enrollment also begins Saturday, are experiencing a shock as premium prices rise.
“We are putting food on the heads of the poor so we can take away their health care,” said the Rev. Ryan Stoess, during a prayer with religious leaders at the US Capitol.
“God help us,” he said, “when cruelty is the point.”
Deadlines moved to next week
The House has remained closed under Johnson for the past month. Senators are preparing to leave Thursday for the long weekend. Trump returns Thursday night after a whirlwind tour of Asia.
That means the shutdown, now in its 30th day, appears almost certain to extend for another week, putting it on track to become the longest in history, surpassing the 35-day span that ended in 2019, during Trump’s first term over his demands to build the border wall between the United States and Mexico.
The next turning point comes after Tuesday’s off-year elections: the New York City mayoral race, as well as elections in Virginia and New Jersey that will determine those states’ governors. Many hope that once winners and losers are declared, and Democrats and Republicans assess where they stand politically with voters, they could be ready to prepare to reach a deal.
“I hope it frees people up to move forward with opening the government,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.
GOP reduced SNAP in Trump’s big bill
Republicans, who have majority control of Congress, find themselves in an unusual position, defending furloughed federal workers and shuttered programs they have long sought to cut, including most recently with nearly $1 trillion in reductions in Trump’s big tax breaks and spending bill.
Medicaid, the health care program and SNAP food assistance suffered considerable hits this summer, in part by imposing new work requirements. For SNAP recipients, many of whom were already required to work, the new requirements extend to older Americans up to age 64 and parents of older school-age children.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans now “have the nerve” to suggest that withholding food aid is a political strategy.
“We’re trying to improve the quality of life for the American people,” New York’s Jeffries said of his party.
“The American people understand that there is a Republican crisis in health care,” he said. “The American people understand that Republicans enacted the biggest cut to nutrition assistance in American history when they cut $186 billion from their single, big, ugly bill.”
During the summer debate over Trump’s big bill, Johnson and other Republicans criticized what they characterized as lazy Americans who were jumping on what the House speaker calls the “gravy train” of government benefits.
The speaker talked about healthy young men playing video games while receiving Medicaid health care benefits and insisted that new work requirements for aid programs would eliminate what they called “waste, fraud and abuse.”
“What we’re talking about, once again, is healthy workers, many of whom are refusing to work because they’re gaming the system,” Johnson said in the spring on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“And when we make them work, it will be better for everyone, beneficial for everyone,” he said.
What remains out of reach, for now, is any relief from new health care prices, released this week, that are expected to put insurance out of reach for many Americans when federal subsidies that help offset those costs expire at the end of the year.
Democrats have been waiting for negotiations with Trump and Republicans to maintain those subsidies. Republicans say they can address the issue later, once the government reopens.
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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.