Bernie Sanders & Senate Democratic Leaders Speak to Reporters on SNAP Benefit Cuts

We're like a big family.

We're like a big family.

We're like a big family.

We're like a big family. We're like a big family. All right.

Thanks very much. I suspect some more senators will come trickling in. Now let me start off by just making a few brief points about where we are today and how we got to where we are. This government shutdown is taking place for one simple reason. For the first time in the modern history of our country, the majority party in the Senate, the Republican Party, which needs 60 votes

to pass a budget bill to fund the government, is refusing to negotiate. Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate. Democratic caucus has 47. You need 60 votes to pass a budget bill. You have to negotiate. But for the first time in modern history, the Republicans are not negotiating.

What they are saying is, their way or the highway, they refuse to sit down and talk. And further, in terms of their contempt for the negotiating process mike johnson the republican leader in the house has given his members a six

paid so here we are in the middle of a government shutdown workers are not getting paid people are worried about escalating health care costs. People are being worried about being thrown off the health care they have. And the Republicans in the House are saying, hey guys, take a six-week paid vacation.

You don't have to be here in Washington, D.C. To me, that is pretty insane. And let me be clear. What do we mean? campaign. And let me be clear what it would mean if Republicans got their way and this so-called CR, continuing resolution, were to pass. First, it would throw 15 million Americans off the health care they have because of massive cuts to Medicaid and the ACA.

And what studies from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere indicate that when you throw 15 million working class and low-income people off the health care they have, 50,000 of them will die unnecessarily every year. So what this legislation is about is whether we vote to allow 50,000 of our fellow Americans to die unnecessarily every year because they were thrown off of Medicaid and the ACA. Further, if the Republicans were to prevail, what it means is that on average health insurance premiums for the 20 million plus people on the Affordable Care Act on average would double.

In my state of Vermont, we have now received information there are some people who would pay a tripling or a quadrupling of their health care premiums when Americans are already paying the highest prices in the world for health care. People cannot afford a doubling or a tripling in their health care premiums. And now what brings us here today in an absolutely unbelievable way. President Trump is refusing to release the $5 billion in emergency funding for SNAP that helps feed 16 million kids, and that is a direct violation of the

law. He is prepared to let millions and millions of children and their parents and grandchildren go hungry because he sees maybe there is a political gain in that. Let there be no mistake, and that is what this statement is about. This is on the U. the US Department of Agriculture website until very recently. The president is legally obligated

to use this emergency fund. And up until last week, last week, his administration was preparing to do that. We are here today to send a very loud and a very clear message to President Trump. Obey the law. I know that's a hard concept for the President, but obey the law.

Do what Congress mandated you do. Do not let children in America and their parents and grandchildren go hungry. Do not go down as the first president in history to manufacture a hunger crisis in the richest country on earth release these funds now the good news is

there are at least eleven republicans in the senate who are supporting a bipartisan bill to ensure that no one in america goes without the nutrition assistance they need during the shutdown. And that is very good news.

And I thank those 11 Republicans. Every Democrat supports that bill as well. That bill, I say to Senator Thune, when you have 11 Republicans and every member of the Democratic caucus on support, that bill should get to the floor immediately. No child in this country should get to the floor immediately. No child in this country should be forced to go hungry. With that, let me introduce Senator

Merkley. So the President of the United States has a new Maha agenda. Instead of Make America Healthy Again, it's the Make America Hungry agenda. It's weaponizing food, using food as a weapon against America's most vulnerable families. In my state of Oregon, you're talking about 210,000 children. You're talking about 130,000 seniors. All told, over 700,000 seniors all told over 700,000 people going without food Congress said this should never happen So we created a contingency fund that fund has five billion dollars in it We created an interchange power

So the president can actually use tariff funds to supplement that five billion and. And here's the President of the United States last month acknowledging that that's the intent of Congress, that these funds exist, people will not go hungry. And now here's the President today saying, I am going to attack the health and welfare of America's most vulnerable families as a negotiating tactic. It reminds me of his strategy over immigration, saying we're going to separate children from their parents.

We'll use children as a weapon. Well, here it is once again, and it's absolutely unacceptable. So the President has the power to address this. A group of Attorney attorney generals are saying, because it's the law, we're going to sue

to say the president has to follow the law. Some 26 attorney generals are suing, saying, President, follow the law. We're saying, follow the law. His Republican colleagues, 11 in the Senate, are saying it matters that children not go

hungry. You know, when children don't have food, they also don't learn. So it's not just an attack on their ability to have basic nutrition for a month. And who really, I mean, who in the United States says, I'm going to make sure children go hungry for a month as a political tactic. Who says that except this president in this time? It's unethical, it's immoral,

it's illegal, and we're here to say hell no. That Democrats and Republicans must join together and tell the president this cannot happen here, not in our nation, not against our children, not against our vulnerable families.

Senator Markey. Thank you and thank you for calling this, Bernie. November 1st is just three days away. That's the day when SNAP benefits stop being added to EBT cards for 40 million Americans because Trump and MAGA Republicans refused to use a $5.5 billion emergency fund to make sure families get to eat. Some of those families are already

having to ration what's left on their cards because they fear nothing is coming on November 1st. That's the same day they have to pay rent. Maybe the same day they have to pay their electricity bill or refill grandma's prescription. It's three days until millions of families across the country

wake up unable to stock the pantry. Three days until thousands of military families and veterans will see their food aid disappear. It's the richest country in the world. When a CEO billionaire just got $1 trillion in tax breaks, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress will allow babies to go

hungry. Trump just found $40 billion to bail out Argentina to get the new president elected, but he can't find enough to feed struggling American families. It is a national disgrace. In Massachusetts, 1.1 million people will struggle to put food on their tables starting Saturday. That's one in six people in our state. One in three SNAP recipients in Massachusetts is a child. At the Stop and Shop in Malden, three blocks from my house, right now it's $4.29 for a gallon of store-brand whole milk. It's $7.55 for one pound of store-brand ground beef. It's $4.99 for a dozen store-brand large white eggs.

And all a SNAP recipient gets is $6 to $7 a day. That's it. And they're going to cut that off. In New Bedford, it is half of all households are on SNAP. In Chelsea, one in four people receive SNAP benefits. And that's people who have real needs that have to be met for their families. So there's no reason a baby should cry and want to food. There's no reason a mother or father should have to experience the heartbreak of watching their daughter or son struggle to focus on homework because they missed a meal. Trump's cruel

cuts are also straining the food banks, the pantries are already struggling to feed and meet the needs of hungry residents. A reality that was quite clear when I met with food bank leaders and anti-hunger organizers at Project Bread in East Boston on Friday. This moment isn't just an economic failure. This isn't just a civic failure. This is an utter moral failure for the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans.

The president could choose to end this crisis today with just one vote. Republicans could restore health care and food assistance for millions of families across our country and reopen the government, just one vote. But the president can use his emergency power to solve the health care problems that are going to be created by the food crisis. And he can do it right now, and he should do it.

Thank you.

Senator Smith. And he can do it right now, and he should do it. Thank you. Thank you.

Senator Smith.

Well, thank you, Senator Sanders, and thanks to all of my colleagues to stand here with millions of Americans who are saying that our kids should not be used as bargaining chips in this ridiculous game that President Trump and Republicans are playing with the health and well-being of Americans. I want to just make two points. The first is that Donald Trump clearly has the authority to keep SNAP funding during

this shutdown. He is just refusing to do it. His own USDA, as Senator Sanders just showed us, told the public that they had the authority. They put it up on the website, and now they've taken it down because they are cruelly using people as their bargaining chips. Congress specifically set aside an emergency pot of funding

for situations like that. Like this, there's more than $5 billion in this fund that is available. So they have the money. And come next week, when roughly 40 million Americans and 440,000 Minnesotans can't buy groceries,

that is going to be on Donald Trump and the Republicans. And here's the second point I want to make. This has real huge consequences for our communities and for our friends and families. On average, SNAP benefits are $6 a day.

For most of the people who are using SNAP benefits are $6 a day.

For most of the people who are using SNAP, they are folks that are seniors, living on a fixed income, they are people living with disabilities, or they are really hard-working Americans, often working two jobs, and they still cannot afford, because of the way our economy is rigged to benefit the wealthiest among us, they still can afford to buy groceries, even though they are working that hard. SNAP participation, it's important to understand who's getting SNAP. More likely, per capita, these are folks that are living in red districts, in rural districts,

in rural counties. So this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. This is an everyone issue. And when staff benefits aren't paid, that mom, that single mom going to the grocery store with her EBT card, she doesn't have any money on that card, so she can't buy groceries. She goes to the food bank, and the food bank is empty because there is huge increased demand for food support.

And everybody is hurt in rural communities when this is happening. So, you know, I thought I had seen everything. But I mean, seriously, last summer, last summer, Donald Trump and Republicans paid for huge tax breaks for billionaires and for the wealthiest corporations by slashing health care and by slashing food benefits for working Americans. And now what are they doing? They want to use hungry children as leverage to get

Democrats to give up our fight to lower health insurance premiums. I mean, they're essentially telling America you've got two choices. You can have dramatically higher insurance premiums or millions of Minnesotans and millions of

millions of Americans can go hungry. And we all know that that is not the real choice.

These are not the real choice.

These are not our only choices. And Americans should not be forced by this president to choose between health care and food. So what needs to happen is really obvious. It's really clear. House Republicans need to come back to Washington and their vacation and get to work.

We need to negotiate a deal. The president who talks about the art of the deal needs to get involved in the art of this deal to lower health care costs and make sure that people have the food that they need.

Senator Welch. Thank you, Bernie, for calling us. Number one, this is not about the shutdown. You know, many of you who've asked us, are you getting pressure because now SNAP benefits are going to expire and therefore shouldn't you reopen government? That is a fair question, but there's a clear answer. This has nothing to do with the shutdown. The law requires and the funds are available to continue SNAP right now without any interruption.

So that is a decision that the president is making on his own, on his own, to allow people to go hungry when he has the power to continue the SNAP benefits that folks desperately need. And it is desperate. I mean, the folks who rely on SNAP, $6 a day, and you can barely buy a pound of hamburger in Chelsea. But that is real. The other thing is a lot of the questions you ask are about the tactics.

Who's doing what? How are you going to get them to negotiate? That's why I think stepping back and having some context, there really was a one big beautiful bill that really did provide incredible tax cuts for very wealthy people in corporations.

There really was a one big beautiful bill that cut food benefits and cut health care. And we are fighting

for what Republican families and

Democratic families need. And that's health care. Taking away the health care, the tax credits, and this applies to folks who are working, buying in the marketplace, means they're not going to be able to afford it and they're going to lose it. You know, in Vermont, Bernie mentioned this, but it's

astonishing when we see some Vermonters, because we have really high health care. A family who's making, a family who's making, 60 year old family, $82,000 a year, they can have a premium increase of $23,000. And then the folks we represent, Bernie, you're getting these letters, I am, and I know all of my colleagues are. There's panic among folks who need that six bucks a day.

And just a couple of people, a woman in St. Johnsbury, we will either be evicted or hungry. Which would you choose? A woman in Essex, without SNAP, I will not be able to eat or get through the month. The situation is out of control. A Vermonter in Brattleboro. I am terrified to hear I'll likely have no grocery money next month.

Now the heartbreak for me about this is not about the politics of who's on first, who's winning, who's got the right move. The politics of this are, do we all want to meet the obligations that we have to the people we represent? And Republican families, Republican farmers, Republican small businesses, as well as their Democratic counterparts are

all the ones who are going to suffer if we don't act.

It's totally inexcusable and it's completely unnecessary.

Senator Murphy.

Thank you very much, Bernie. Listen, I think we have to understand that Donald Trump and Republicans have one priority and one priority only. That is the enrichment of their billionaire and corporate friends at the expense of everyone else. The big beautiful bill is a simple enterprise. The most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich and affluent in the history of the country included in that Big Beautiful Bill is a massive cut

to nutrition benefits. And so the tactics they are using today are in service of maintaining their one single priority, the tax cuts that they were able to gift to the very wealthy and the very powerful, the richest families in this country in the big beautiful bill got a tax cut of $270,000. And so it shouldn't surprise anyone how outrageous these tactics are. One is to tell House Republicans to not show up for work.

I know you guys have to write a new story every day, but there's really only one story, which is that the House Republicans have been AWOL from their jobs for the entirety of the shutdown because it's easier to protect your tax cuts for the wealthy if you don't even require your employees to show up on the job. It is extraordinary to put families in this country through the horrific, mind-altering pain of knowing that your children are going to go to bed hungry at night. But it's in service of protecting the tax cuts for the wealthy.

As Tina said, what they believe is that they can put people through such horrifying pain in this country, the Democrats will agree to a budget that allows for those tax cuts to continue and spreads even more pain amongst people through the evisceration of our healthcare system. So we are here today talking about this illegal decision

that the president has made to not spend these contingency funds because only one thing matters to him, preserving those tax cuts. We are here as the only body showing up for work today because only one thing matters to Donald Trump, preserving those tax cuts.

No president in the history of this country has ignored that law, has during a period of shutdown refused to spend the contingency funds because no president prior to this one was so myopic about helping only one small segment of people in this country, the very rich and powerful, that they were willing to do such enormous, unconscionable damage to the most vulnerable families in this country as a tactic to try to make sure that their help for the powerful is maintained.

Senator Van Hollen. Thank you. Thank you, Bernie. We know that Donald Trump and Republicans here in Congress and all their billionaire buddies don't care about slashing and now terminating food assistance programs

for 40 million Americans, including 16 million kids. How can we say that with confidence? Because as my colleague said, they showed us who they were in what they called the big beautiful bill. It was beautiful if you're a billionaire. For everybody else, it sucked.

And one of the things they did was cut food assistance programs for almost $200 billion to help finance those tax cuts for their billionaire buddies. That was a choice. It was an intentional, deliberate choice. Tax breaks for billionaires at the expense of kids and other on food and nutrition programs. And what they're doing right now is also a deliberate choice.

They are using this Trump shutdown to inflict unnecessary pain on the American people. We've seen this already in the context of federal employees, where they've been illegally firing federal employees. to the United States. And we have to do it. We have to do it. We have to do it. We have to do it. We have to do it. We have to do it. he wanted to do. He said he wanted to impose trauma on federal employees.

And now what they're doing is using these cuts to food nutrition programs to impose trauma on all of the American people. And we know it's deliberate because, as my colleagues have pointed out repeatedly, this statement was on the Department of Agriculture

website just within the last few weeks. They know what congressional intent is. They know they've got the money. And they are choosing not to use it for this purpose. So this is a sadistic policy being imposed by Russ Vought and Donald Trump and Republicans depriving 40 million Americans of food, nutrition assistance to keep paying for their billionaire buddies'

tax cuts.

I looked up in Webster's the definition of sadism, and the definition is to delight in cruelty. That's really sick. But that's exactly what Donald Trump and Russ Vought and Republicans are doing. They're delighting in cruelty, and they're using 40 million Americans and 16 million of them kids

for their perverse purposes at this moment. Our message is pretty simple. You don't have to do it. In fact, the law says you should spend the money to make sure that we feed hungry Americans. So don't do it, and join us, as we've done seven times now,

to vote to reopen the government without giving Donald Trump

and Russ Vought a blank check, and also to bring down health care costs that are going through the roof. That's

our message. For the first time in American history, a president of the United States is shutting down access to food for millions of Americans. Donald Trump has made the decision to let people across this country go hungry. Trump is telling 15 million hungry children eat dirt. Trump is telling a million hungry vets eat dirt. Trump is telling 8 million seniors who are hungry eat dirt. That is

how much Donald Trump cares about the children, the veterans, the seniors, the people of this country. Look, Donald Trump knows how to round up money. He's managed to round up money for a gold-encrusted ballroom to replace the East Wing of the White House. He has managed to round up $40 billion for Argentina, but he can't manage to round up one nickel for hungry children in this

country. This is a manufactured crisis. Donald Trump and the Republicans, part one, decided to cut benefits for those who are hungry in the big beautiful bill. Part two is the government shutdown. Donald Trump and

the Republicans would rather shut down government than help Americans afford their health care. And part three is Donald Trump and the Republicans ignore current law, ignore the six billion dollars already sitting in reserve in order to deny hungry people access to the food they need. So, while Donald Trump is dreaming of well-done steaks with ketchup to be eaten in his gold-encrusted ballroom, little kids will go hungry.

I am proud to be here with the Democrats who are fighting back.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you. Any questions?

Yes, right here.

Yeah.

Tell us who we are from.

I'm Gabe Hawkins.

I'm from the Dill News Service. This is for any of the senators, but do you think that the unpopularity of SNAP benefits being taken away and all the lawsuits that attorney generals are filing across the United States, do you think that's going to have any sway with Trump and the Republicans?

Damn right I do. Look, what people understand is you got a multi-billionaire in the White House, palling around with people who are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, giving these people massive tax breaks, and at the same time telling families in this country who are struggling to put food on the table to feed their kids that we don't have the resources for them when in fact

congress has appropriated over five billion dollars to do that do i think the american people are going to respond strongly damn right i do

yes ma'am. Thank you so much. Senate Democrats are continuing to reject the House-passed D.R. to open the government, but since Congress does have the power of the first to fund the government, how do you justify blaming Trump to fund all these various aspects of government when it's Democrats who continue to vote to keep it on the house? Excuse me, this is, why don't you read this?

What this is, is a, this is a congressional mandate. It is acknowledged by the Trump administration. What they are saying is, we acknowledge that there are over $5 billion in a fund that in the event of a shutdown will be released in order to continue the SNAP program. That is not unequivocal. That is the reality. Let's have a president who obeys the law for a change.

Yes ma'am. Sir, you talked about the 11 Republicans who are joining you, of course. Do you think there will

be more after November 4th when it really hits? Well, I think myself, others can jump in here. My own view is yes. I think the demand here is first of all, of course, that Trump obey the law and release that funds. The second demand is that Mr. Thune listens to 11 Republicans in every member of the Democratic caucus and bring that bill to the floor. If your question is, do I think even more Republicans will come aboard, yes I do. Yes ma'am. The largest federal workers union, AFGE, just sent a statement to NEC that they're calling for an end to shutdown, saying that both political parties have made their point and there's still no end in sight and it's time to pass a clean CR to end the shutdown today. What's your reaction to this? here. Everybody here is upset that federal employees, including our own staffs who are working hard, are not getting paid. We all want our federal workers to get paid. But

we also want to make sure that children in America are fed. We also want to make sure that 50,000 people a year do not die unnecessarily when they are thrown off of health care and we also do not want to see health care premiums doubling for 20 million people. Yes, ma'am.

I want to follow up on that question.

Is there a point in the future that you see where Democrats may decide it's just you the year to vote on it?

Look, I think what this thing ends up being about, I wish I could say otherwise. There's one man who's going to end this. I guess he's an Asian on, is whatever he's doing. That's Trump. Republicans will listen to Trump. Now Trump may be crazy and he may be a pathological liar, but he's not stupid.

And he's not a bad politician. He understands where people are at. I think he is going to catch on that the American people are not sympathetic to giving tax breaks, massive tax breaks to billionaires and cutting nutrition programs for kids.

All right, somebody else jump in here and answer all the other questions.

Sure, go ahead.

If we come to November 1st and this contingency fund has not been released, no legislation has been passed, and countless other benefits being affected during shutdown, would you urge your Democratic colleagues to reopen the government and continue hard negotiations on fighting for health care in regular time? I'm convinced that after this press conference, you're going to write such powerful stories to spread the word all across America that the President has the funds right now for

the next two weeks. I'm convinced that after this press conference, you're going to write such powerful stories to spread the word all across America that the president has the funds right now for kids that those kids are going to get that funding. Those seniors are going to get that funding. I'll defer to any of my colleagues who would like to add anything to that. Yes, sir. I find it absolutely shocking because this is not an attack on immigrants, which we are

well experienced in. This is an attack on the most vulnerable families in America. And this is not because either side can say, well, legislation needs to be passed in order to fund this program, because the legislation was already passed to fund this program. The money is sitting in the federal treasury, $5.5 billion. In addition, there is interchange authority that allows tariff funds to be used to supplement that,

and the president likes to brag about how much money the tariffs are raising. So the idea that you're going to use babies, children, vulnerable families, seniors as pawns and take away food for a month in a negotiation, I find it absolutely stunning beyond anything else I've seen from this administration.

Maybe one, anyone else want to jump in? I will just say in the last Trump shutdown, you didn't see this kind of conduct. They didn't riff federal employees for what the court just said was political retribution. You didn't see them ignoring the law when it comes to food and nutrition programs. We have seen a lot of people who have been in the hospital for a long time, who have been in the hospital for a long time, who have been suffering from a lot of political retribution.

You didn't see them ignoring the law when it comes to food and nutrition programs. So it was bad in the first shutdown, first Trump shutdown, that was 35 days. Now we're in the second Trump shutdown. have repeatedly voted, as we've said, to reopen the government, but without giving Donald Trump a blank check to continue all this activity, and to make sure that we avoid the health care crisis that is upon us.

Thanks.

All right.

Well, thank you all very much.

Take care.

Thanks, Bernie.

Sorry I was late.

No.

Bernie, thank you. Bernie, thank you.

Good job.