House speaker says that issuing Snap contingency funds is ‘not as easy as hitting go send on a computer’
Mike Johnson has said that issuing payments to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) beneficiaries in the midst of the shutdown is “not as easy as hitting go send on a computer”.
In recent days, two federal judges ordered the administration to use the program’s contingency funds to pay to Snap recipients. Today, Johnson said this was more complicated than it looked.
“It costs over $9bn to fund Snap for a month, and we only have, I think it’s $5.2bn in the contingency fund. So you have a big shortfall,” he said. “You got to go through and recalculate partial payments to the 42 million recipients of the program.”
Johnson noted that the president was not appealing against the rulings from the respective judges. “He wants that to be done,” Johnson said. “But he doesn’t see the mechanism to do it. So you have treasury, you have USDA, you have the other agencies involved that are working overtime, literally around the clock over the weekend, trying to figure out how to do this. But everybody needs to know, it’s not the full amount, assuming they could get this done and processed.”
Key events
Johnson says ‘extremism on the left’ is the direct cause of American suffering
Throughout today’s press conference, Mike Johnson has continued to blame Senate Democrats for shuttering the government for 34 days. He, and many congressional Republicans, have claimed that the reason that lawmakers on the left have consistently rejected the House-passed funding bill is due to pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
“They fear that personally for their own political future,” Johnson said today. “And they care more about that than they care about Snap benefits flow into hungry families, about air traffic controllers being paid so they can keep the skies safe, border patrol, troops and all the rest … It is extremism on the left that is the direct cause of American suffering right now.”
In a short while, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will hold a press conference, on the 34th day of the government shutdown.
We’ll bring you the latest lines, particularly when it comes to reopening the lower chamber, as the shutdown is poised to be the longest on record (likely to beat the 35 days during Donald Trump’s first administration).
Trump says that he would reluctantly prefer Cuomo to win NY mayoral race
In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor win against the progressive frontrunner and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani to be the next mayor of New York City.
“If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
Early voting in the closely watched mayoral race ended on Sunday. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Supreme court set to decide whether Trump’s sweeping tariffs are legal
Looking ahead, on Wednesday, the supreme court will hear arguments on whether Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries are legal. It’s set to be one of the most consequential rulings on the expanse of Trump’s presidential power in his second term.
My colleague, Eduardo Porter, has this helpful breakdown on the question at the heart of this case. A dozen states have challenged the president’s contention that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 gives him the power to impose tariffs on imports from every country in the world to defend the nation from a several “threats” facing the US.
Eduardo notes:
Justices will focus much of their attention on whether IEEPA authorizes the president to levy a tariff – a word that is not mentioned in the text of the law and is, moreover, a form of taxation, over which, per the constitution, Congress has exclusive power.
IEEPA gives the president authority “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the president declares a national emergency with respect to such threat”.
Yet as the plaintiffs noted, using this “to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the US he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the president has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy”. Rather than solving national emergencies, Trump is using emergency powers to manufacture one.
Read Eduardos’ full analysis here.
Trump continues to push for eliminating filibuster, despite Republican pushback
The president has, once again, called for lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, as the government shutdown continues, and is set to enter its 34th day.
A reminder that this is the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to end debate on a bill, and a bring the legislation to the floor for a vote.
“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, NOT JUST FOR THE SHUTDOWN, BUT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday. “REMEMBER, THE DEMOCRATS WILL DO IT IMMEDIATELY, AS SOON AS THEY GET THE CHANCE. OUR DOING IT WILL NOT GIVE THEM THE CHANCE.”
The president repeated his wishes in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes. “The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want. We’re not gonna lose power,” he told Norah O’Donnell. Congressional Republican leaders have said there is no intention to scrap the procedural measure. House Speaker Mike Johnson called it the “safeguard” in the upper chamber.
Donald Trump has no public events scheduled today, per the official White House schedule.
However, he’ll take part in two virtual campaign events for the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, in an attempt to assert some influence over these pivotal elections while the Democratic candidates push ahead in the polls (although the race looks tighter in New Jersey).
On Sunday, the president weighed in on Truth Social, questioning why residents in either state would vote for either Mikie Sherill or Abigail Spanberger.
“They want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World? VOTE REPUBLICAN for massive Energy Cost reductions, large scale Tax Cuts, and basic Common Sense! Under President Trump, ME, Gasoline will come down to approximately $2 a Gallon, very soon,” he wrote.
My colleague Lauren Gambino has filed this report on the California proposition to redraw its congressional district boundaries. Here is an extract from her story:
California’s Proposition 50 began as a warning from the nation’s largest blue state to its largest red one: don’t poke the bear. But when Texas moved ahead with a rare, mid-decade gerrymander, pushed by Donald Trump as Republicans seek to shore up their fragile House majority in the midterm elections, California made good on its threat.
Now, California voters appear poised to approve a redistricting measure placed on the ballot in August by Democrats and the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who have cast it as a chance to check Trump’s power …
Proposition 50 asks voters to temporarily scrap the state’s independently-drawn congressional district lines in favor of new maps carved up to help Democrats win five additional safe seats – a tit-for-tat response to Texas, where Republicans secured five new, friendlier districts earlier this year …
Early returns and polling suggest the ballot measure is on track for a comfortable victory. Though it can be difficult to predict turnout in an off-year special election, several recent surveys showed it passing by more than 20 points.
Tuesday is election day in several states. It will be an early indication of how voters feel in the first year of the second Trump administration.
Both Democrats and Republicans will be carefully watching the outcomes in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, the high-profile mayoral contest in New York and the electorally significant redistricting referendum in California, where Democrats have asked voters to approve redrawing the state’s congressional map.
Trump says Maduro’s days are numbered but ‘doubts’ US will go to war with Venezuela
Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about potential US intervention in Venezuela, playing down concerns of imminent war against the South American nation but saying its leader Nicolás Maduro’s days were numbered.
The president’s remarks, made during a CBS interview released on Sunday, come as the US amasses military units in the Caribbean and has conducted multiple strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, killing dozens.
Asked during the 60 Minutes program if the US was going to war against Venezuela, Trump said: “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” However, when asked if Maduro’s days as president were numbered, he replied: “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.”
Photograph: Jesús Vargas/Getty Images
Maduro, who faces indictment on drug charges in the US, has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas to seize Venezuelan oil.
More than 15 US strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific have killed at least 65 people in recent weeks, with the latest taking place on Saturday, prompting criticism from governments in the region.
Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the US.
You can read the full story here:
Donald Trump has said he feels bad for the British royal family after King Charles stripped his brother Andrew of his title as prince amid the continuing fallout over Andrew’s connections with the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump was asked about King Charles’s decision to strip his brother of his peerages and the title of prince.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the (royal) family,” the US president said. “That’s been a tragic situation. It’s too bad. I feel badly for the family.”
Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager and claims she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the former prince. Andrew has strenuously denied the allegations.
Pressure is building on Andrew to give evidence before a powerful US congressional committee. Members of the House Oversight Committee have called for the former prince to reveal what he knew about the actions of Epstein.
Trump’s planned weapons tests won’t include ‘nuclear explosions’, US energy secretary says
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, has said the weapons testing that Donald Trump ordered last week will not include nuclear explosions.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions,” Wright told Fox News yesterday.
“So you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry, and they set up the nuclear explosion,” Wright added.
Wright, whose agency is responsible for testing, said the planned testing involves “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”
The confusion over Trump’s intention started minutes before he held a critical meeting in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump took to his Truth Social platform and appeared to suggest he was preparing to discard a decades-old US prohibition on testing the nation’s nuclear weapons.
As we mentioned in the opening summary, two federal judges have ruled that the government cannot suspend food aid used by about 42 million low-income Americans during the shutdown.
Here is more on the story, courtesy of my colleague Lauren Gambino:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said insufficient funds exist to pay full benefits, as issuing food stamps costs the public purse between $8.5bn and $9bn every month.
The Trump administration contends the agency lacks authority to pay them until Congress passes a spending bill that will ending the enduring government shutdown, which began on 1 October.
Trump lambasted the decisions on Friday, writing on Truth Social that he does “NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT”.
“I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible. It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” he wrote.
“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”
US government shutdown nearing record for the longest in history as Trump delays food benefits to millions
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Republicans are claiming that the US president, Donald Trump, is “desperate” to end the government shutdown, which has now entered its 33rd day, as lawmakers struggle to find common ground on previously bipartisan issues such as food aid and health care.
The last shutdown, which started in December 2018 and was brought about by disagreements over money to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border, lasted 35 days – the longest in American history.
Republicans have only 53 Senate seats, meaning they need at least seven Democrats or independents to reopen the federal government. But in repeated votes since federal agencies shut on 1 October, just three Democrats have been willing to support funding legislation.
Trump continues to exert an iron grip on the shutdown, which sees Democrats and Republicans stuck over passing a spending plan that would reopen federal agencies. He is resisting political and even federal court pressure to ease the burden on vulnerable Americans while protesting that he has no power to end the impasse.
“I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” Trump told 60 Minutes in an interview on Sunday. “You know, they’ve never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension, always saying, ‘Give us an extension, we’ll work it out.’”
Two federal court judges ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must use $5bn in contingency funds to keep paying food assistance Snap benefits for up to 42 million low-income Americans. The payments stopped Saturday under the shutdown, posing the risk of hunger for millions of people.
As my colleague Ed Pilkington reports in this story, despite the two court orders, it remains unclear when or whether the administration will restart the payments. Trump has said he is waiting for clarification from the federal judges on where the money should come from.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest developments from Washington.
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