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Federal judges have intervened and ordered the federal government to keep Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments flowing despite an ongoing shutdown that threatened to cut off benefits on November 1. The rulings told the USDA to tap contingency reserves — a temporary, judicially compelled fix that underscores how Washington’s fights spill over onto the backs of struggling families.
Make no mistake: this is not a small problem. SNAP supports roughly 42 million Americans at a cost of about eight billion dollars a month, and when benefits are threatened millions of children, seniors, veterans, and working families face real hunger and real hardship. Courts can order stopgap measures, but judges are not a replacement for common-sense governing or for appropriations that Congress was sent here to pass.
Republican lawmakers — including Senate conservatives who have been consistent about fiscal responsibility — are pleading for a simple, obvious solution: reopen the government and pass a clean funding bill so programs like SNAP aren’t used as political hostages. Sensible Senate proposals, including targeted bills to keep SNAP funded during the lapse, have been put forward and cosponsored by members like Senator John Cornyn, while Democratic obstruction has repeatedly blocked straightforward votes to end the shutdown. Americans are tired of political theater when grocery shelves and paychecks are at stake.
The judges’ orders are a temporary bandage, not a cure. Congressional leaders of both parties should stop treating appropriations like a leverage game and act to restore normal operations; continuing to punt responsibility to judges or bureaucrats is unworthy of elected leaders who swore an oath to serve the public. Senate Republicans have been forced into difficult choices — some wary of eroding filibuster norms, others rightly demanding an end to Democrat stonewalling — but the obligation remains: reopen the government now.
Meanwhile, the country is also digesting explosive revelations about the so-called Arctic Frost probe, which Senate Republicans say amounted to a sprawling, politically charged effort by FBI and Justice Department officials to cast a net over dozens, even hundreds, of conservatives and elected officials. Chairman Grassley and other GOP investigators have released subpoenas and internal records that raise troubling questions about the weaponization of federal law enforcement.
This is not a partisan tantrum; it is a demand for the rule of law and equal treatment under it. If the FBI and DOJ used their enormous powers to snoop on political opponents and collect tolling data on lawmakers, American citizens deserve the truth, accountability, and reforms to ensure this never happens again. Republicans are right to insist on full oversight and consequences for those who abused their offices.
Patriots on both sides should agree on two things: protect vulnerable Americans from needless suffering, and defend the Constitution from those who would weaponize institutions for political ends. Reopen the government, fund SNAP by doing your job in Congress, and demand answers about Arctic Frost — that is the simple, responsible course. Our people and our institutions deserve nothing less.
