November 4, 2025 3:50 a.m.
Late Monday, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley denounced Senate Republicans for blocking his resolution with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to force President Trump to immediately use all congressionally approved funding to keep families from going hungry.
Merkley said, “President Trump has a new MAHA strategy – the ‘Make America Hungry Agenda’ using food as a weapon to inflict harm to vulnerable kids, seniors, and families across America. It’s wrong on every level”. Merkley said, “Last month, the Trump administration indicated it had the authority to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a government shutdown using an emergency fund appropriated by Congress. Rather than follow the law, Trump decided to use America’s most vulnerable families as political pawns and removed the policy from the Agriculture Department’s website. Children, seniors, and vulnerable families are not bargaining chips – they are Americans who rely on this critical program”.
Merkley continued, “Now the Trump Administration is claiming it will only fund half of SNAP benefits in November, and that funds wouldn’t be delivered – in its own words – ‘for a few weeks up to several months’. This is outrageous – the President needs to use both the full authority of the continency funds and the interchange authority to fully fund SNAP benefits for November, so families and kids don’t starve”
Merkley’s release said on Friday, October 31, two federal district courts ruled that President Trump was obligated to provide SNAP benefits via contingency funds, but earlier today, U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary of Food and Nutrition and Consumer Services Patrick A. Penn said in a court filing that the agency would utilize its contingency funds but ‘USDA’s understanding is that the system changes States must implement to provide the reduced benefit amounts will take anywhere from a few weeks up to several months”. He also said that the contingency fund totals about $4.65 billion, which will only fund half of SNAP for November, and the Administration would not use interchange authority to spend Section 32 tariff revenue to fully fund SNAP.
Merkley claims that after nutrition assistance from SNAP for roughly 42 million Americans was stopped on November 1 due to the ongoing government shutdown, Senate Republicans blocked Merkley and Schumer’s resolution and failed to take further action to protect critical nutrition assistance for families nationwide.