Press Releases

WASHINGTON — On Day 31 of the Democrat Shutdown, Speaker Johnson hosted a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to discuss how Senate Democrats have rejected every opportunity to fund SNAP ahead of the program running out of funding tomorrow. Speaker Johnson also offered his gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have shown up to work for a month straight despite Democrats repeatedly blocking their paychecks.

“Remember, Republicans are the ones who have voted 14 times for SNAP benefits to flow, it's the Democrats who voted every single time to turn that off,” Speaker Johnson said. “The same Democrats who've been perfectly fine with defunding SNAP and WIC for over a month now are suddenly claiming to be outraged that Republicans and President Trump can't just wave some magic wand and fix the mess that they themselves have created.”

Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here.

On Democrats deliberately withholding SNAP funding from tens of millions of recipients:

President Trump has proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that if there is any way to fund these programs that are drying up now, that he will do it. If there was any way to fund SNAP during the Democrat Shutdown, you can be assured that your Commander-in-Chief would do it. But we are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding, now, 14 different times. SNAP benefits for millions of American families are drying up. It's about one in eight people in this country who rely upon this to literally put food on their table. And the blame for this lies 100% with the Senators sitting over there in the Democrat Party. They are the ones who have locked arms and decided over and over and over and over, 14 times now, to vote against these services being provided. And now I want you to think about that. You're going to have real people, real families, you're going to have children who will go hungry beginning this weekend when those resources dry up. They rely upon that. And yet the Democrats continue with their political games in Washington while people are sitting around the dinner table without the resources that they need. The Administration has done all it can to keep this program afloat, but the limits have been reached here.

And what are the Democrats doing today? Where are the Democrats? Are they in the Senate today? No, they're out campaigning. While critical SNAP benefits run dry, the Democrats have skipped town. They've abandoned their post in the Senate. And the reason that's so important and noteworthy for the American people is the Senate is the only place where this can end, the last hope of reopening the government before millions of Americans go hungry. They've abandoned their post. Democrats are, now this is the incredible part, they're now trying to somehow blame Republicans for cutting off SNAP. Remember, Republicans are the ones who have voted 14 times for the SNAP benefits to flow; it's the Democrats who voted every single time to turn that off. The same Democrats who've been perfectly fine with defunding SNAP and WIC for over a month now are suddenly claiming to be outraged that Republicans and President Trump can't just wave some magic wand and fix the mess that they themselves have created.

On Democrats leveraging American suffering to score political points:

I'll begin with Senator Coons. He's the senior Democrat Senator from Delaware. In 2013, he said this, “Our democracy cannot function if the majority party threatens to shut down the government unless it gets its way.” And that was Senator Coons in 2013. And what is he saying now? Earlier this week, he said, “Frankly, this is our only moment of leverage.” Quite a switch.

Bernie Sanders has got a lot of airtime here lately. And back in 2018, Senator Bernie Sanders said this, “The truth is that shutting down the government is a serious and dangerous action that we must do everything possible to prevent.” That was in 2018. You know what he said this month? “If we reopen the government, we lose our leverage.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in 2013, said the shutdown was, “entirely unnecessary and has harmed our economy and our reputation in the world. But if we also can't forget, we must never again allow extremist hostage taking to create this kind of disruption.” That was 2013. Just days ago, the Senator from Rhode Island said the opposite. “It's the only lever we have,” meaning the shutdown. What he means is that the pain of the American people is their political lever. I guess he's forgotten his cries of alarm over the extremist hostage taken.

And how about the House? Infamously now, we all know the Democrat Whip, Katherine Clark, the second highest ranking Democrat in the House, said just last year, “They are taking a non-issue, a false flag, and saying, this is the reason we can't proceed. It is a dangerous precedent to be threatening a shutdown.” That's what she said in 2024. And what'd she say about a week ago? The opposite. “Of course, there will be families that are going to suffer here, but it is one of the few leverage times we have.” Many House members have echoed the same hypocrisy. And I'm not going to waste our time with it this morning, but I do want to leave you with this quote from Chuck Schumer, because he is the actual architect of the shutdown. He is the one that is preventing the Senate Democrats from doing the right thing in March of this year.

As you know, he voted on the same CR to avert a shutdown. And he said then in his speech on the Senate floor and in a bunch of interviews, “The CR was certainly bad, but a shutdown would be 15 or 20 times worse. It was a vote of principle.” And today, Chuck Schumer entirely void of principle by his own estimation, said, “Every day gets better for his party.” Tell that to the millions of American families facing a hunger crisis now as a direct result of his failed leadership and shenanigans.

On gratitude for hardworking federal employees:

We have spoken daily every day at this podium about the real pain that Americans are experiencing because the Democrats shut down. We talk about the pain for our troops, for our federal workers, for American families. And this morning, we want to speak specifically about the millions of American families that are going to feel real hardship because of SNAP benefits drying up. And we have no one less than the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, who is in charge of that program, will speak directly to that issue. But I want to begin first with just a word of sincere gratitude. Across this country, we've got millions of federal workers who have been showing up at the office every day without pay.

This has drug on for a month now. Those federal workers have shown up for a month straight not knowing when or if their next paycheck will be delivered. They're doing their jobs and they're doing it valiantly, while the Senate Democrats simply refuse to do their job. Their most simple and basic responsibility is to keep the government in operation so that we can keep the services flowing to the American people and keep the country moving. But they're not doing that. So we just want to say to these federal workers, like the hundreds of civilian employees who are also spread throughout the country, like the ones in my district, for example, at the Bayne Jones Army Community Hospital down at Fort Polk, our big Army base there, we just want to say--thank you for your diligence for doing your job, for your service to the country even though Democrats are withholding your paycheck.