Ron DeSantis is rejecting the argument that the state of Florida should fill the gap created by the interruption in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments driven by the ongoing federal government shutdown for nearly 3 million Floridians.
“We wouldn’t be able to administer something. I mean, it would take a long time,” DeSantis said Monday at Jacksonville’s Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
He says Democrats are “holding up the funding” for the program by not voting for the clean continuing resolution, already passed by the House on a simple majority vote, but held up in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to pass the budget bill.
“They should stop holding up the funding for the program. Because I know it’s been passed in the … U.S. House, and I know the Senate has gotten a majority of the vote to continue this for many, many times, but you just have kind of the rump caucus,” DeSantis said.
“They could end it tomorrow,” DeSantis added, “they are choosing not to do that.”
The ongoing shutdown of the federal government is now in its 33rd day, and the end is nowhere in sight.
Republicans have repeatedly claimed Senate Democrats are privileging transgender issues and health care for undocumented immigrants in blocking the CR. Democrats argue their interest is in extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that 4.7 million legal Floridians currently rely on.
