A House Republican stammered Wednesday when he was confronted with a Republican's remarks undercutting President Donald Trump's claim about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as the program is just days away from losing funding amid the ongoing government shutdown.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper was interviewing Rep. John Rose (R-TN) when the GOP lawmaker paused to try and respond to a question about how Congress could extend the multibillion-dollar pool used for emergencies to fund SNAP, including government shutdowns.
Tapper had just wrapped an interview with Sariya Birdine, a Tennessee food stamp recipient, when he asked Rose his reaction.
"Her basic take is not to assign partisan blame," Tapper said. "It's just you and your colleagues are paid to solve these problems and make sure that they're not. People like her kids are not pawns in this fight."
"Twenty-nine days — for 29 days, Republicans in the Senate have kept the government shut down. And it's really deplorable to see them using people like Mrs. Birdine as pawns, if you will, or leverage as the Democrats refer to it, to try to get what they want. And, you know, we know that Republicans, with the help of one Democrat in the House, passed a bill to keep the government open 40 days ago. And unfortunately, Chuck Schumer decided that a shutdown made sense for Democrats. And he's played this game. Using the American people as fodder to accomplish what he wants to accomplish politically. And it's really shameful."
Tapper referred to the $6 billion contingency fund under the Department of Agriculture that the Trump administration said could be accessed — until Sept. 30 — but now they say those funds aren't for that.
"The top Senate Appropriations Republican Susan Collins, says her team's analysis is that the Department of Agriculture can use that fund. Shouldn't you support using that contingency fund to pay for SNAP? So kids like Sariya's that we just heard from don't go hungry?" Tapper asked.
"Well, that — that certainly seems tempting, but the — the fund $5.6 billion is not nearly enough to cover the cost in the short run," Rose responded, stumbling before blaming Democrats again.
"And secondly, that fund is there for emergencies. And we have a hurricane bearing down on us now. And so if we use those funds here, then there won't be able to be used elsewhere. We see Democrats make these trade-offs all the time, where they pick winners and losers with funds like this. And so I think we have to be careful if we take something that's there for an emergency and use it when the answer is simple you know, the Senate is in Washington, you know, five or six senators could join all the Republicans and get this done and reopen the government and spare people like miss Birdine and her family, her 5-year-old and her 6-year-old from the suffering that the Democrats are using, the Schumer shutdown should end. I think they miscalculated. They need to just take stock of that. We've seen this mistake over and over in the past, and it just doesn't work to use people as leverage in these situations."
"I get that the $6 billion in contingency funding is a short-term solution," Tapper said. "Only 2 or 3 weeks worth of SNAP funds. But that means a lot to those kids. And if Sen. Susan Collins says they can use it, she's the head appropriator on this matter. She says they can use it for this. Why not just do it? We're talking about an emergency situation here of kids and seniors and disabled people and veterans being able to eat."
That's when the Republican lawmaker then pointed to the Trump administration's talking points and tried to shift blame on his opponents again — ignoring that Collins has already admitted that the funding was actually available.
"Well, my understanding is Sen. Collins may — may be right, but my understanding is that the administration made the assessment that those funds could not be used for this purpose. And more importantly, that they're — they're to make way or to provide for emergencies. And so I think, again, we need to just get back, get the Senate to get us back in business. And you know, that's — that's the easy for five or six Democrats. And then we can negotiate on these bigger questions that they want to talk about. But as long as they keep the government shut down, they're holding all of America hostage for their political, their frankly, their progressive, radical, left-wing agenda. And — and so, you know, this needs to end and they need to quit hurting everyday working Americans like Ms. Birdine."
In Rose's district, there are 76,000 SNAP benefit recipients and more than 700,000 recipients in Tennessee.