Democrats in Congress are pressing their Republican colleagues to force the Trump administration to disperse funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps. The Trump administration has more than $5 billion in an emergency fund to keep the program running after the scheduled expiration date on Saturday. 

Senate Democrats have for nearly a month been blocking a clean funding bill which would have kept the government open through November 21. They say that — like with past budget bills — there needs to be a bipartisan negotiation on key issues like health care and Congress’s appropriations powers. Republicans, in turn, say they want the clean extension of funding in order to let that process play out. 

The most recent victim of the shutdown — after the administration’s attempts to fire federal employees and ground stops at major airports started occurring — is SNAP. The Department of Agriculture says it will not be able to keep it funded past November 1. The department estimates that 42 million people across 22 million households will lose access to benefits this weekend. 

“Senate Democrats built much of their identity on being the party of ‘helping the helpless,’” agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in a Newsweek opinion piece on Tuesday. “Now they are failing those very people, among millions of others, each reliant on a functioning U.S. government.”

Democrats, however, insist that Ms. Rollins can use the emergency fund established by Congress to continue paying states for their respective SNAP bureaus. They also say Mr. Trump can use his tariff revenue to make the program whole. 

“We are here today to send a very loud and a very clear message to President Trump: Obey the law!” Senator Bernie Sanders told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. “Do not let children in America … go hungry. Do not go down as the first president in American history to manufacture a hunger crisis.”

“Release these funds,” Mr. Sanders declared.

A spokesman for Ms. Rollins did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, however, Ms. Rollins said her department does “not have” the money needed to keep the program funded. 

Senate Democrats at the press conference Wednesday pointed to a now-deleted plan which was originally posted to the Department of Agriculture’s website declaring that the federal government could make sure states were paid for their SNAP expenditures. 

In March, as part of the previous government funding deal, Congress appropriated a $6 billion contingency fund for the program. According to a lawsuit filed by more than 20 states on Tuesday demanding that the administration release SNAP money, there are between $5 billion and $6 billion left in that fund that can be released. 

If the funds do lapse, it would be the first time since SNAP was established by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that the federal government would not be able to pay its obligations for food stamps. 

A small band of Republicans have already introduced their own bill, authored by Senator Josh Hawley, to keep SNAP fully funded through the shutdown. Including Mr. Hawley, 11 GOP senators are signed on to that bill. 

Senator Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, introduced legislation to fund both SNAP and the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program. On Wednesday, he called on Republicans to put Mr. Hawley’s bill on the floor to keep SNAP funded, at the very least. 

“Funding for SNAP has never lapsed in the history of the United States. Last shutdown under President Trump, they found a way to use this money,” Mr. Luján said, calling the current administration’s claim that funds are unavailable, “bulls–t.”

Democrats have pointed to comments made by Mr. Trump’s agriculture secretary during his first term, Sonny Perdue, who made sure SNAP was fully funded despite that shutdown lasting for 35 days. During his press conference with Mr. Luján, Senator Chuck Schumer had a Twitter post from Mr. Perdue in 2019 when the then-agriculture secretary announced that the program would be funded despite that shutdown. 

“Mr. Luján went to the Senate floor just hours later to ask unanimous consent that his bill to fund SNAP and the WIC program be funded.” The majority leader, Senator John Thune, objected to that move on the grounds that Democrats should simply fund the government. At times, Mr. Thune — who typically maintains a level head — was screaming. 

“Let me just point out, if I might, that we are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown,” Mr. Thune said. “SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country, and we’ve tried to do that 13 times! You’ve voted no 13 times!”

“There are people who are running out of money!” the South Dakota senator yelled at his colleague. “What Democrats are doing here [is] they’re making plans to keep the shutdown going.”