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Lawmakers are facing mounting pressure to find a workaround to keep government benefits flowing or reopen it as the shutdown lingers into its fifth week with the Senate at a standstill and the House out of session with The shutdown will enter its second month over the weekend, adding to the crunch Americans will feel as government services run dry. Federal workers, even those who have had to show up to work, are going without paychecks and crucial services like will have benefits cut off in the coming days without a breakthrough to reopen the government. Senators on both sides of the aisle have started to propose bills to address some of the consequences of the government shutdown, like funding food stamps or guaranteeing pay for all federal workers. The efforts to restore pay and keep benefits flowing reflect the pressure deadlines and consequences of the shutdown are putting on Congress to reopen the government. Neither side has budged from its original position, with both parties voting to reject proposals from the other side to reopen the government. Republicans want to reopen the government through a “clean” continuing resolution, free of partisan policy riders, while Democrats have refused to provide their votes unless the GOP agrees to include the extension of expiring healthcare subsidies that risk spiking premiums in the bill. Lawmakers have engaged in a nearly monthlong game of finger-pointing across the aisle over who is to blame and are now trying to minimize the harms of the partisan standoff. “There's a strong argument to be made that these kinds of piecemeal bills reduce the costs associated with shutdowns and therefore create less incentives for Democrats to give up their position on the C.R.,” said Matthew Green, a political science professor at Catholic University. Funding for SNAP, which is will run out on Friday after the Trump administration said it would not be using contingency funds to keep it running into November. SNAP is used by roughly 1 in 8 Americans to buy groceries on debit cards loaded with government funds worth an average of $187 a month. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been trying to find a way to keep the funding flowing despite the shutdown, including a proposal from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to fund SNAP. Ten Republicans have signed onto the effort, and the bill could also receive Democratic backing as concerns mount over the impact a lapse would cause on lower-income families. “There is no reason any of these residents of my state — or any other American who qualifies for food assistance — should go hungry. We can afford to provide the help,” Hawley wrote in New York Times op-ed on Tuesday. Active-duty service members are also at risk of missing a paycheck on Friday, which comes after the administration shifted some $8 billion in other funds to pay troops. It’s unclear if the Pentagon will be able to make a similar move at the end of the week, but Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that he thought troops would be paid at the end of the week. “We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now,” Vance said. “We’ve got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We’re trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out.” Democrats are also under pressure from a federal workers union that has called on Congress to end the shutdown as more people are having to find part-time work or use credit to make ends’ meet. Some Democrats are considering backing a bill by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to pay all federal workers after blocking an initial effort that only paid essential employees. “With Republicans doing it, it kind of suggests that they're concerned about the implications of the shutdown for essential elements of the federal government. This was not their initial position,” Green said. “Maybe they're trying to trap Democrats and get them to vote ‘no,’ but on the other hand, why would they be trying to bring these up if they felt they had a stronger negotiating position?” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he thought Johnson’s bill would likely get “strong” support within the GOP. But Thune has also been opposed to one-off legislation for specific causes during the shutdown over concerns it could incentivize Democrats to prolong the shutdown. “This piecemeal approach where you do one off here, one off there, to make it seem, you know, more politically palatable to somebody, or less painful it's just a wrong way to do this,” Thune said. “There's just a simple way to do it, is to pick up the bill on the desk of the Senate and give us five more Democrat votes to pass it.” It’s also unclear if any of the bills would make it through the House, which has been out of session throughout the shutdown, after House Speaker Mike Johnson called them a “waste of time.” “The Democrats are playing games. They put a few of the one-off bills on the floor, as you’ve seen in the last week or so. They put a bill to pay the troops, pay essential workers, and Democrats voted it down,” he said on Tuesday.
