From The Hill newspaper,
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is set to hold a vote Friday with an eye toward ending the government shutdown.
The GOP leader told lawmakers over a conference lunch that he will hold another vote on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) that has failed to advance 14 times so far. This time, however, Thune is putting it on the floor with an eye toward amending it to attach a three-bill spending package — known as a minibus — that has been part of negotiations with Democrats, one Senate GOP aide said.
The bill would also include a new end date of sometime in January, rather than Nov. 21 included in the House-passed measure.
First of all, the Senate hasn’t met on a Friday for several weeks. So, this is an unusual move. The recent pattern has been to adjourn on Thursday and return Monday evening.
Second of all, amending the resolution would mean it would not end the shutdown. The House would have to pass the amended document and they haven’t been in session since late September.
Hey, remember the controversy about SNAP (food stamps) that was all anyone would talk about during the runup to Tuesday’s election then was completely forgotten for three days? Now it’s back!
Federal judge orders Trump admin to provide full SNAP payments
From The Hill,
Last week, McConnell ruled the administration, at minimum, was required to deplete a roughly $5 billion SNAP contingency fund. But it was not enough to fully fund November benefits, which are expected to cost upward of $9 billion.
The judge had told the administration it needed to tap other funds to cover the gap or expeditiously get partial payments out.
What other funds? The judge starts with the emergency money, which he says not only can be used during shutdown, but must be used during shutdown.
That wasn’t ever going to be enough, so the judge says to fund it anyway. With what? A judge can’t appropriate money, only Congress can appropriate money.
The judge’s new order requires the administration to make the full November payments to states by Friday, so they can provide them to households.
This is insane. The Administration has filed an appeal.
