Government shutdown drags on as missed paychecks, benefit lapses increase pressure for deal

More than 40 million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to pay for groceries are facing uncertainty as benefits are expected to come to a halt Saturday.

"People are scared," said Central Pennsylvania Food Bank CEO Shila Ulrich, who expects demand to pick up. "It's a moment where people don't know and understand what's about to happen, whether or not they'll get those benefits should the government open back up, or when."

Erin Annis — who uses SNAP benefits after three bouts of cancer and a double knee replacement left her unable to work — told CBS News that she'll need to rely on help from her children if assistance is cut off.

"That's an awful feeling," she said. "For them to have to help me … it's a little tough to think about sometimes."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says "the well will run dry" for SNAP benefits, often known as food stamps, due to the government shutdown. The department says it will not tap into a roughly $5 billion contingency fund to keep SNAP payments flowing, arguing that money is reserved for natural disasters. 

The Trump administration has blamed Senate Democrats for the looming cutoff, faulting lawmakers for not voting on a bill passed by the GOP-controlled House to fund the government. Meanwhile, Democrats have pressed GOP leadership to agree to extend health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans in exchange for Democratic votes to end the shutdown. 

Annis said she just wants lawmakers to find a solution.

"This should not be a political issue," she said. "This should be a human privilege to be fed."

Several Democratic states have posted messages on their online portals for food aid that explicitly blame President Trump or Republicans for an expected halt in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

"President Trump is currently choosing to not issue November SNAP benefits that help you and many families put food on the table," read a message on Massachusetts' SNAP website. The states of Illinois and Pennsylvania put similar pop-up messages on their SNAP portals.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says SNAP benefits — otherwise known as food stamps — will not go out on Saturday, Nov. 1, due to the shutdown, after the Trump administration decided not to tap approximately $5 billion in contingency funds to keep the benefits flowing. The program helps about 1 in 8 Americans pay for groceries.

The USDA blamed Democrats for the shortfall.

"Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program," the USDA site reads. "Bottom line, the well has run dry."

Three U.S. airports are facing delays due to low air traffic control staffing levels.

Flights at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport are delayed by an average of 39 minutes, with flights out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport delayed 18 minutes, according to Federal Aviation Administration data. The agency said staffing was the cause of the delays at all three airports.

Dallas and Newark are among the busiest airports in the country, and serve as hubs for American Airlines and United Airlines, respectively.

Air traffic controllers have not received a full paycheck since the government shutdown began earlier this month, but they are expected to report to work without pay — and as in prior shutdowns, the number of staff members who call out sick has increased.

Thune told reporters he spoke to the president last night, and "there are ongoing conversations about where things stand." The president is in Asia to talk trade and other business. 

"And he, like all of us, wants the government opened up," Thune said. "And I think he's made that very clear, as we all have."

On the possibility of bringing a bill to the floor to fund SNAP benefits, Thune said he will "have a conversation" with Republican senators on "what steps they want to take moving forward."

Asked about other standalone bills to pay certain federal employees, such as air traffic controllers, Thune said GOP leaders will "see what the temperature is of our senators on some of those issues."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor that President Trump is "manufacturing a SNAP crisis instead of working with the Democrats" to end the shutdown.

"The very same administration that sent $40 [b]illion to Argentina at the drop of a hat, to help Trump's MAGA ally, is now telling hungry families in America they can't have nutrition funding. What gall," Schumer said, referring to loan guarantees and a currency swap the administration is arranging to bolster the South American country's libertarian president, Javier Milei. 

"The administration's decision to let SNAP freeze is callous, cynical and entirely unnecessary. Donald Trump says there's no money to pay hungry kids … but he's spending $40 billion to bail out Argentina, $300 [m]illion on his vanity ballroom, $172 million on two luxury jets for Kristi Noem. Hundreds of millions for outfitting his foreign jet. But nothing, nothing, nothing to help hungry kids," Schumer continued. "What warped priorities. What a bubble this president lives in, apart, away and not caring about the trauma the American people are facing when it comes to health care."

The New York Democrat said the administration "is making an intentional choice not to fund SNAP this weekend." 

"The emergency funding is there. The administration is just choosing not to use it. And for those who say the money can't be moved around so easily, that's a load of bunk," he said. "If the administration can cough up $40 billion for Argentina, they can find money for SNAP by this Saturday."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune railed against Democrats for their position in the shutdown fight in floor remarks as the Senate convened Monday, saying that the chamber will try again to reopen the government with a 13th vote later this week.

"Democrats once passionately opposed shutdown, or so they said, in large part because of the impact they would have on American citizens and American workers," Thune said. "Now, government workers and every other American have become nothing more than pawns in the Democrats' political games."

Thune noted that federal workers missed paychecks last week, that the next paycheck for U.S. service members are "in jeopardy," and more than 40 million Americans could lose access to food aid if the shutdown continues. 

"The party that once decried the impact of shutdowns on Americans in need is now apparently content to see 40 million Americans go without food," Thune said. 

The South Dakota Republican said "Democrats' victims are piling up," and that Democrats "don't look likely to spare anyone anytime soon."

Thune said that "while some Democrats may be privately uncomfortable about all the damage a four-week shutdown is doing, so far they're too scared of their base to do anything about it." And he argued that if Democrats were really focused on addressing the health insurance issues, they would be "voting to reopen the government so that we could actually engage in a serious discussion about rising health care costs and how Obamacare has failed to address them."

"But they're not," Thune said. "Because at the end of the day, Democrats don't want a solution — they want a political issue."

Barry Black, the Senate chaplain, opened the Senate session with a pointed invocation.

"When our children and grandchildren want to know what we were doing in the 119th Congress, during the famous shutdown, may we not have to give these answers: 'I helped set a new record for keeping the government closed. I failed to appeal to the better angels of my nature. I forgot Matthew 7:12, which states, Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and prophets,'" he said.

Black concluded: "Lord, remind our lawmakers that no gold medals are given for breaking shutdown records. But a crown of righteousness is given to those who take care of the lost, last and least."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, led a group of colleagues on Monday to call on the administration to immediately open up the "window-shopping" period before Affordable Care Act open enrollment, which begins Nov. 1. Window-shopping allows consumers to see the cost of plans before open enrollment starts.

In a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, the group of 30 Senate Democrats stressed that window-shopping is "more important than ever before," saying the millions of people who buy health insurance on the ACA marketplace "need as much time and information as possible to understand and prepare for these significant premium increases."

"Now more than ever, working families need to understand the consequences of Republicans' choice to hand historic tax cuts to billionaires and wealthy corporations while leaving people who buy their own health insurance to fend for themselves," the Democrats wrote. 

Democrats have made an extension of the health insurance tax credits the key pillar of their demands to support the effort to reopen the government, warning that premiums could more than double next year. But Republicans have insisted that they will not negotiate the issue until the shutdown comes to an end. 

In the letter, the Democrats said that for the last eight years, CMS has given people about one week to preview health coverage options.

"Republican and Democratic administrations have ensured that consumers have the opportunity to review their plan options before open enrollment begins," they wrote. "This Administration has no reason to delay giving Americans this vital information."

The Senate convened at 3 p.m., with votes on a pair of judicial nominations set for 5:30 p.m. There is no vote on government funding scheduled for Monday.

Roughly 3,370 flights were delayed across the U.S. on Monday as more essential workers failed to show up to work. 

In addition to the flight delays, 118 flights heading into or out of the U.S. were canceled, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. 

The delays come after backups at airports over the weekend. On Sunday, more than 8,700 U.S. flights were delayed, FlightAware data shows, as air traffic controller shortages rise. Such workers are set to miss their first full paychecks on Tuesday.

"They got their notice on Thursday and Friday. They get a notice of what they are going to be paid on Tuesday. And they got a big fat 'no paycheck is coming on Tuesday,'" Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News on Sunday.

Read more here.

The schedule to resume votes on government funding remains fluid and has not been finalized, a source familiar with the matter tells CBS News. One option under consideration is to focus on narrower bills this week, including measures to pay air traffic controllers (sponsored by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz) and/or the military (sponsored by GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan). Thousands of air traffic controllers are set to miss their first paycheck tomorrow, while Friday marks the next pay date for troops. 

A separate bill to pay federal workers who remain on the job failed last week, but could be resurrected if a compromise is reached between the bill's sponsor, Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, and Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen introduced a counterproposal that would include furloughed federal workers and contractors. A Democratic aide confirmed Van Hollen is "in continued discussions with the Johnson office." 

"Not one of our federal employees, servicemembers, or contractors deserves to be punished for this government shutdown. I'm continuing to work to make sure they're not," Van Hollen said in a statement to CBS News. 

Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has introduced legislation to fund the SNAP program through the shutdown. A companion measure has also been introduced in the House. 

Hawley's bill and the Johnson/Van Hollen measures are less likely to hit the floor this week but are being monitored closely by leadership, according to a source.

Some federal workers who are not being paid during the government shutdown have a nagging fear: They might not receive retroactive pay once the impasse is resolved.

Roughly 1.4 million federal employees whose wages are being withheld during the government shutdown are hunkering down and cutting all nonessential spending, as they missed their first full paychecks on Friday. 

Both furloughed workers and so-called "excepted" government employees, who must continue to show up to work during the shutdown without compensation, are entitled to back pay under a federal law called the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019.

The law makes clear that both classes of federal employees affected by a lack of funding will eventually be paid in full. They "shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee's standard rate of pay."

However, a draft memo from the White House's Office of Management and Budget suggests that furloughed workers are not guaranteed back pay, an administration official confirmed to CBS News. When asked on Oct. 7 about furloughed workers getting back pay, President Trump said, "I would say it depends on who we're talking about."

Read more about retroactive pay here.

Asked whether it would be more helpful if President Trump were in Washington, Johnson told reporters, "President Trump has entrusted us to fix this because this is an Article I branch problem."

"The president tried his best, he brought them in before all this madness started, and Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries effectively told him to jump in the Potomac," Johnson said. "So it's up to the Democrats, everybody knows that. The president said he'll meet with them on any issue under the sun. We're delighted to talk about it, but they have to get the government reopened first."

Mr. Trump is scheduled to be away from Washington for most of the week for a three-country visit to Asia. Last week, Schumer and Jeffries called for a meeting with the president to negotiate a path to reopen the government, but the president denied the request, insisting that they must end the shutdown first. The leaders last met with the president before the shutdown began.

On the health care issues that have driven the funding fight, Johnson said Republicans have been working on a fix for health care "for years," while stressing that it was never possible to address health care in a simple stopgap funding measure, like Democrats have sought. 

"The reason it was never appropriate or never possible to be resolved in a simple CR, a stopgap funding measure, is because it's very complicated to fix," Johnson said. "But Republicans have a long list of ideas."

The speaker insisted that "I am not going to go in a back room with Chuck Schumer, like he keeps demanding, with four people and make this decision."

"I will not do it. It's not appropriate, it's not right. It's too complicated for that," he said. "We need all the members to have buy-in. We need to have these healthy debates and discussions."

Asked whether the military would receive paychecks later this week, Johnson said he wasn't sure. The administration tapped unspent research and development funds to cover service members' pay earlier this month but officials have warned that was a temporary fix.

"Their next check is due the end of this week, and we're not 100% sure," Johnson said. "I do know the administration and everybody is bending over backwards to try to figure that out, but I don't know the final analysis yet."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sunday that members of the military will receive their upcoming paycheck, but he warned that if the shutdown continues, the U.S. would be unable to pay the service members by mid-November.

Johnson said the administration has worked "very creatively and very hard to limit the pain on the Americans" during the shutdown. But he said "the SNAP benefits is a unique situation." 

The speaker said he received a summary of the legal analysis, noting that "the contingency funds are not legally available to cover the benefits right now."

"The reason is because it's a finite source of funds, it was appropriated by Congress, and if they transfer funds from these other sources, it pulls it away immediately from school meals and infant formula," Johnson said. "So it's a trade-off."

Johnson added, "there has to be a pre-existing appropriation for the contingency fund to be used."

"The best way for SNAP benefits to be paid on time is for the Democrats to end their shutdown, and that could happen right now if they would show some spine," Johnson said. 

Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, highlighted the impact of the government shutdown on small businesses at Johnson's daily news conference at the Capitol. 

"Prior to the Democrat shutdown, the data was very clear," Loeffler said. "Small business optimism was at seven-year highs, wage growth was outpacing inflation for the first time in four years. GDP growth was 3.8%. Deregulation, energy dominance and fair trade were finally back." 

Loeffler said "for the first time in years, America's small businesses felt the wind in their sails." But 27 days into the shutdown, she said "Senate Democrats have intentionally put that momentum at risk."

"The SBA's loan guarantee programs have been halted, and Main Street's capital has been choked off because Senate Democrats are playing politics with lives and livelihoods," she said. 

Loeffler claimed "the pain is the point," saying the shutdown has stopped 320 local businesses from accessing $170 million in SBA loans for hiring and expansion every day.

"On Day 27, all of that adds up to 6,000 small business loans that have been prevented from receiving upwards of $4 billion in Main Street lending," she said.

The SBA administrator said "thousands of painful stories" for America's small businesses are playing out throughout the country. She said "it's time for Chuck Schumer to end the political stunt — pass a clean funding bill, open the government."

"We must bring the same common sense that prevails on Main Street back to Washington," Loeffler said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned of the toll that the government shutdown is beginning to take on Americans, saying that "every Republican in Congress wants to stop this madness desperately."

"Day 27 means it's almost been a full month since the Democrats shut down the government," Johnson said at his daily news conference at the Capitol. "And as we near the end of this month, the pain being felt by so many working people around this country is very real — and it gets worse with each passing day."

The Louisiana Republican said the families of military service members and air traffic controllers, among others, "are now at very real risk of missing the paycheck at the end of this month."

"The Trump administration has done everything possible to bend over backwards to try to find sources of funding within the federal government to be able to cover the bases, but it's getting more and more challenging with each day," he added.

Johnson said Republicans want to reopen the government, pointing to the repeated votes on a GOP-led funding measure. He said it's "a simple math problem," noting that the Republicans need Democrats to cross the aisle in support of the measure in the Senate. 

Gina Plata-Nino, interim director for SNAP at the Food Research & Action Center, urged Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Monday to utilize her authority to issue federal food aid "regardless of what's going on with the shutdown."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said federal food aid will not go out on Nov. 1, after the administration said it would not use contingency funds to maintain benefits. The USDA has said the funds are only for disaster situations and are not eligible to cover benefits. One in eight Americans depend on SNAP benefits, with 40 million Americans covered. 

Plata-Nino, who leads the nonprofit focused on ending hunger, said on "CBS Mornings Plus" that the situation is "incredibly serious."

"The people relying on this benefit are our most vulnerable. For the most part they're making less than $1,000 a month," Plata-Niño said. "This means that they may not be able to pay their rent, they may not be able to pay childcare, they may not be able to have food on the table for their children when they come home. And this will set them back."

Plata-Niño said "these are individuals who are living paycheck to paycheck," including veterans, older adults and people with disabilities.

"This program's supposed to be supplemental, but for many people, this is their sole food budget," she said. 

During the 2018-2019 government shutdown, which lasted 34 days, the administration was able to utilize appropriated funding to issue benefits ahead of time, Plata-Niño outlined. But the USDA said it won't release emergency funds to cover the benefits shortfall this time around. 

Plata-Niño argued "the Nutrition Act is clear — the secretary has the authority, has the contingency fund that Congress gives her to be able to utilize it at such a time as this, which is the entitlement program so that benefits could be funded and not delayed."
"This is a man-made disaster that could be easily avoided," Plata-Niño said.

The Senate will work to approve two judicial nominations on Monday, with no plans to vote for a 13th time on advancing a House-passed measure to fund the government.  

The chamber will reconvene at 3 p.m., according to Majority Whip John Barrasso's office. At 5:30 p.m., senators will vote on confirming two nominees.

The largest federal workers union in the U.S. called on Congress to bring an end to the government shutdown and reopen the government on Monday, urging lawmakers to pass a funding measure today.

"Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight," Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, wrote in a statement. The union represents 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers.

Kelley said that "it's time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today," outlining that lawmakers should vote for a funding measure that "allows continued debate on larger issues." Senate Democrats have repeatedly opposed a measure that would fund the government until Nov. 21 as they've sought an extension of health insurance tax credits.

The union president stressed that Congress must ensure back pay for federal employees and work on a bipartisan basis on "important policy matters like addressing rising costs and fixing the broken appropriations process."

"None of these steps favor one political side over another," Kelley said. "They favor the American people — who expect stability from their government and responsibility from their leaders."

Nearly half a million federal workers missed their first full paycheck on Friday. Sarah Lamm is among them, continuing to go to work at a Social Security field office without pay 27 days into the shutdown.

"I'm the head of my household. I'm the sole income provider for my home. I'm a parent. I have two small children. I carry the load in that sense," Lamm told CBS News. "Not having an end in sight, I think adds to that anxiety and everything's very uncertain."

And this week, thousands more are expected to not be paid — including air traffic controllers.

A series of staffing shortages on Sunday prompted a temporary ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport, with additional delays reported in Newark, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Sunday that "controllers are wearing thin," pointing to more than 20 staffing triggers. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on its website that "the well has run dry," warning that no benefits will be issued on Nov. 1 under the food stamp program, known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which covers 40 million Americans.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration's previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse.

"I think we'll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren't going to be able to get paid," Bessent said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

Read more here.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its website saying federal food aid will not go out on Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families nationwide as the government shutdown drags on.

The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November. That program helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries.

Read more here.