SNAP deadline becomes Democrats' sharpest leverage

When SNAP benefits run out on Nov. 1, 42 million Americans are going to struggle to put food on the table — and Democrats allege the Trump administration has specifically designed that outcome by "weaponizing hunger." Why it matters: Democrats see the looming aid shortage as a Republican disaster designed to push them to the shutdown negotiating table, and are making the freeze central to their reopening messaging. What they're saying: "Trump is weaponizing hunger," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a Wednesday news conference. "He's turning millions of children and seniors and veterans into political pawns," he said. "All of these people who will lose their SNAP benefits, not because the money's gone, not because it's not permitted, because Donald Trump ordered it stopped," Schumer added."Plain and simple, refusing to use the appropriated funds is against the law," Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee Angie Craig (D-Minn.) said in a separate press conference Wednesday.Driving the news: A group of 25 states and the District of Columbia sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, claiming it's illegally withholding funds that could sustain benefits.The suit notes that the freeze is the first time in the program's roughly 60-year history that benefits will be stopped, despite the USDA having $6 billion in contingency funds that could be utilized.The lawsuit also identified at least one other pot of money USDA could pull from, which the department already tapped earlier this month to fund the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. The intrigue: The USDA's own shutdown-funding plan, which has been removed from the department's website, indicates that the contingency funds could be used.Zoom out: Trump kept SNAP funded during the 2018-19 shutdown by using contingency funds, but it's unclear why the administration's stance on using the money has changed during his second term. The White House did not respond to Axios' request for comment."You heard about the contingency fund that exists," Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, told reporters on Wednesday."When it suits them, they have all the funds in the world. When it doesn't, of course, there's nothing."The other side: "Democrats chose to shut down the government knowing full well that SNAP would soon run out of funds," an Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told Axios' Juliana Bragg in response to the suit."It doesn't have to be this way, and it's sad they are using the families who rely on it as pawns."The USDA did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment, but a banner on the department's website says Senate Democrats are "approaching an inflection point.""They can continue to hold out … or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance."What we're watching: While there's no clear path to reopen the government right now, the punishing mix of frozen SNAP, WIC and home energy benefits in addition to routine monthly bills due on Nov. 1 may help pressure Congress into reopening the government. Go deeper: Food banks brace for 42 million without SNAP

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