Alabama’s federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are decrying the potential impacts of the continuation of the federal government shutdown.
The Senate failed for the 13th time on Tuesday to approve a Republican-backed and House-passed continuing resolution to temporarily fund the federal government and end the shutdown, which began on Oct. 1.
In statements released this week, Alabama Republicans and Democrats alike have drawn attention to the upcoming expiration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits on Nov. 1, and highlighted the debate surrounding the upcoming expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.
SNAP currently provides supplemental nutrition for 42 million low-income Americans who will go without benefits starting next month if the shutdown continues.
Representative Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, released a statement Tuesday calling for Democrats to approve the Republican-backed funding bill and reopen the federal government, drawing attention to the upcoming cut-off of SNAP benefits.
“Food assistance benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will lapse on November 1 simply because Washington can’t keep the government open. This failure is completely avoidable,” Aderholt said.
“Working families should never be used as leverage in partisan battles. If Democrats wish to open discussions about Affordable Care Act subsidies, I say let’s do that — but let’s keep the government running while we talk,” the representative continued. “Let’s not shut down vital services and leave millions of Americans wondering how they’ll put food on the table.”
U.S. Senator Katie Britt, R-Alabama, who has cosponsored a bill introduced by U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to fund SNAP benefits retroactive to the shutdown’s beginning, has similarly condemned Democrats for voting against the Republican funding bill.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have justified their refusal to vote in favor of the Republican continuing resolution, citing the bill’s lack of a clause extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced Premium Tax Credits, ePTCs, federal subsidies administered yearly through the ACA’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
ACA ePTCs were enacted by the American Rescue Plan in 2021 and extended until the end of 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. However, Democrats have argued that in order for the subsidies to be made available for next year, legislation extending ePTC coverage must be passed before Nov. 1, when Healthcare Marketplace open enrollment is set to begin.
Healthcare nonprofit, the Kaiser Family Foundation, has reported that the expiration of ePTCs would cause a 114 percent increase in the average annual costs of Marketplace premiums.
U.S. Representative Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, who has criticized Republicans for failing to include a clause extending ePTC coverage in their continuing resolution, argued on Tuesday that the Trump administration has the power to continue SNAP benefits during the shutdown and has chosen not to do so.
“SNAP benefits will be suspended on Nov. 1, and the Trump administration is doing nothing about it,” Sewell said in a social media video on Tuesday.
“The administration has the ability to fund SNAP in November through a contingency fund, but they’re not doing it. The Trump administration is making a choice to take away food assistance from hungry Americans next month,” she continued. “President Trump and Republicans would rather take food away from hungry Americans than to work with Democrats to end this shutdown.”
U.S. Representative Shomari Figures, R-Alabama, similarly released a statement Monday calling for an end to the shutdown, arguing that the Trump administration has the ability to continue funding for SNAP.
“This shutdown is not a game. It’s having real life consequences, and it’s about to get real personal for thousands of families in Alabama when SNAP benefits are suspended for some of the poorest people in the State,” Figures wrote. “We should be doing better than this. The Administration could prevent benefits from being lost right now, but has chosen not to. The Trump administration and Congressional Republicans need to come to the table to end this shutdown now.”
The USDA has said SNAP’s $5 billion contingency fund is designed for unforeseen events such as natural disasters. The agency, alongside U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the Trump administration, has argued the funds are not legally available to support SNAP benefits during the shutdown.
The Alabama Department of Human Resources, which administers SNAP in the state, has announced SNAP benefits will end Nov. 1, urging Congress to reach a compromise and end the shutdown.
“We know SNAP benefits are vitally important to the more than 750,000 Alabamians who depend on the more than $140 million in support each month. Alabama DHR, along with many others, hopes Congress will come to a quick resolution on the federal government shutdown,” Alabama DHR Commissioner Nancy Buckner said.
Aderholt also highlighted statements from members of the House Values Action Team, which he chairs, regarding the shutdown over social media, including from Republican Representatives Gary Palmer and Barry Moore.
“The Schumer Shutdown is not about healthcare,” Palmer wrote, claiming Democrats are using the shutdown to “maintain the support of the socialists and Marxists millionaires and billionaires that they depend on to stay in power.”
While Palmer didn’t elaborate on what donors Democrats are seeking to appease in his statement, the representative, in a Monday newsletter, pointed to Senator John Ossoff, D-Georgia, who he claimed exemplified Democrats’ fear of upsetting donors by voting in favor of the Republican continuing resolution.
Palmer cited an article from The Hill in which a “Democratic insider,” not directly affiliated with Ossoff’s fundraising campaigns, said the Senator who is up for reelection next year has voted against reopening the government because doing so would mean a hit to his fundraising efforts.
However, Ossoff told the publication his refusal to vote for the Republican spending bill is because it fails to extend ACA credits.
Moore, meanwhile, in a statement released by Aderholt, claimed the shutdown is the result of a Democrat push to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare to undocumented immigrants.
“Every day this shutdown drags on, more families feel the pain, not because of House Republicans, but because Democrats are fighting to extend a taxpayer-funded healthcare scheme that forces Americans to foot the bill for illegal immigrants – all while our troops, farmers, and federal workers are left without pay,” Moore said.
Democrats have demanded that Republicans include a reversal of cuts made to Medicaid by the One Big Beautiful Bill, which capped the amount of Emergency Medicaid funds hospitals may receive.
Although providing federally funded healthcare plans for undocumented immigrants is illegal, Emergency Medicaid funds are dispersed to hospitals in order to reimburse uncompensated emergency care for individuals who would be eligible for Medicaid enrollment, if not for their immigration status.
Democrats have additionally called for a clause of the OBBBA excluding Medicaid enrollment for legally present non-permanent residents to be revoked.
A research letter published earlier this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, out of the 38 states and D.C. that reported Emergency Medicaid expenses in 2022, spending on the program made up an average of 0.4 percent of overall state Medicaid expenditures, for a mean cost of $9.63 per resident.
