HELENA — The longest federal government shutdown in history has dragged on for more than 40 days, but it appears Congress is now on a path toward reopening.
On Sunday night, 52 Republican senators – including Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy – and 8 Democratic senators backed a procedural vote that started moving forward a potential agreement on funding. With the additional support from Democrats, the proposal cleared the 60-vote threshold that had so far prevented funding plans from passing in the Senate.
(Watch the video to hear more from Montana's congressional delegation about the possible agreement to end the shutdown.)
In a statement to MTN, Sheehy said lawmakers had been “working around the clock to end the senseless Schumer Shutdown,” and that the eight Democrats were “finally joining Republicans to do the right thing.”
“I look forward to reopening the government, restoring badly needed common sense in D.C., and getting back to work for the American people,” he said.
Daines said in a statement that Democrats had “finally realized the harmful impact” of the shutdown.
“However, this is the exact same deal Republicans proposed a month ago, proving that this truly is a Democrat shutdown that could’ve ended before our troops and federal employees missed their paychecks, before thousands of Americans were stranded by flight cancellations, and before families on SNAP struggled to put food on the table,” he said. “This was the longest shutdown in American history for no good reason, and the political theater should never be repeated.”
Montana’s two U.S. House members, Republican Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing, will be on their way back to Washington, D.C., with House leaders expecting to vote on a possible agreement later this week.
In a post on Facebook, Zinke said it was because of politics that the Senate was only now moving forward on a continuing resolution.
“Meanwhile workers went without pay,” he said. “Families went without SNAP. Americans from all stripes had their vital government services slowed or stopped. Billions of dollars hit to our economy. For nothing. They could have avoided all that pain in September when the House passed the CR.”
During the shutdown, Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, made it a primary request to extend expiring subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats have argued the funding impasse lasted as long as it did because Republicans hadn’t been willing to negotiate with them on that issue.
Meanwhile, after a back-and-forth series of federal court rulings, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced Monday that it has advanced partial SNAP nutrition assistance to clients’ electronic benefit cards. The federal government is currently advising states to only issue 65% of the typical maximum benefits for November.
DPHHS encouraged SNAP recipients to check their balances by calling the EBT Cardholder Help Desk at 1 (866) 850-1556, or by visiting mybnft.com. They said those methods would be faster and easier than calling the Public Assistance Helpline.
State Rep. Mary Caferro, D-Helena, said the announcement of partial benefits was better than nothing, but still not enough.
“Consider how much you spend on a coffee drink a day: $5, $3, $6?” she said. “Somebody who has SNAP, their allotment for a day is anywhere between $5 and $6. What’s 65% of that? Is that enough? And it would be different if there was a reason, but Montana has the money.”
Caferro led a group of Democratic state lawmakers who announced Sunday that they would submit a petition, calling for an official poll on whether the Montana Legislature should return for a special session to vote on using state money to cover the temporary shortfall in SNAP benefits.
“I've sat here and listened to people day in and day out for the last 10, 11 days, ‘Are we going to get SNAP? Yes, we are. No, we're not. Oh, yes, we are.’ Back and forth every day, two or three times a day, just looking at the news and what's going on at levels higher than us,’ said Rep. Thedis Crowe, D-Browning, during an online news conference Monday. “I think people need to be held accountable for that.”
In Montana, 76,898 people received SNAP benefits in October. Legislative Democrats have called on Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration to use leftover state funds to support SNAP. Gianforte told MTN last month it was the federal government’s responsibility to fund the program and there wouldn’t be any guarantee the state would be reimbursed if they used local money.
Caferro said, in light of what’s happening in Congress now, they’ll hold off for now on submitting their petition, which got signatures from 32 legislative Democrats. It might have taken up to a month to conduct a poll and a special session wouldn’t have happened until Dec. 15.
However, Caferro said she remains frustrated the administration isn’t taking action on its own.
“The crisis didn't happen today, it isn't going to happen whenever Congress gets their act together, it isn't going to happen when we get a special session,” she said. “We're already ten days into it.”
