Senator Marshall: Republicans Have Voted to Fund SNAP Thirteen Times
Senator Marshall Joins Pete Mundo on KCMO to discuss the Schumer Shutdown
Washington – On Monday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Pete Mundo on Mundo in the Morning on KCMO radio to discuss day 34 of the Schumer shutdown, SNAP funding, and the Senate filibuster’s role in the shutdown.
Click HERE to listen to the Senator’s full interview.
On his recent trip to Harvesters Food Bank in Lawrence:
“Hey Pete, well, good morning. You know, food banks have been one of my big priorities. My wife volunteered at one for 20-some years as well, so we’ve been to quite a few of the food banks. This is a center that warehouses lots of food and then distributes it as well. And its volunteer ran. So, it’s always heartwarming, and those people have a real touch, too. So, when people come into the food banks, there’s an opportunity to touch them, personally, spiritually, and socially as well. So, I’m a huge fan of food banks. And to your point, obviously, with food stamps, maybe they’re on, maybe they’re off again, I’m not sure, for the next week or two, but certainly those food banks will be even more important.”
On SNAP funding during the shutdown:
“Now we’ve got the courts involved with it as well. So, we ran out of the regular money on Saturday. There was some contingency money of $5 billion that’s supposed to be used for hurricanes and disasters. But these two federal judges said, well, the Schumer shutdown is a disaster as well, so you need to use those $5 billion up. So, it’s going to take a little time to start it after it’s been stopped, and that’ll be enough for two more weeks of funding. I think what’s going to happen is they’ll restart them at the end of this week, and that’ll get us through a couple more weeks, unless, of course, we give the Democrats come across the line. Remind everyone, 13 times Republicans have voted to fund food stamps, 13 times the Democrats have voted against it. So, we’re sitting here on day 34. How does this end? Or when does it end, or both. I mean, it’s just it doesn’t seem like there’s any end in sight.”
On when the shutdown will end:
“Pete, I think again, it’s so important though, we go back to the basics here and frame the conversation. Republicans want to open the government and work towards responsible spending. The Democrats want to add $1.5 trillion of debt for our grandchildren, and we’re saying no. So, they’ve taken a hostage, and not just the 1.5 within that, of course, are the Biden supplemental funding as well for Obamacare, where there’s $50 billion of fraud. So, you’re right. I thought, you know, this would be the week. I thought, with the inflection point of all the different pressure points, the second week, now that the air traffic controller, CSA, have not got their money yet, WIC programs are shut, are out of money. The governor’s race is tomorrow, and two blue states, and then the food stamp thing is really the one that was putting that you saw people squirming about it, senators on both sides of the aisle, including me. Look, I want to fund the food stamps. 42 million Americans use it. 200,000 Kansans use it. So that’s the inflection point. But now the judges have taken it sounds like maybe their foot off the throat. So, I don’t have an answer for you, Pete, but I’m going to be flying back in a moment and get back to work on it.”
On the next vote to end the shutdown:
“Yeah, so we’re going to vote tonight, but the good news is we are working our tails off getting judges and nominations across the finish line, and we’ll vote again tomorrow on the continual resolution, the short gap measure, and at the same time, Susan Collins, who’s the chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, she’s got 90% of the things through committee for funding. 90% of the funding has been through the committee, but Chuck Schumer won’t let us vote on it, so she’s going to keep trying to work her magic to get those other three. There are three buckets left. She needs to get finished as well. And look the stopgap measure. We got to figure out how long we need it. It was to November 21, but now we’re going to need it to go into next year. There’s no way, even if they vote tomorrow. So tomorrow to open the government, we can’t get the regular order done for funding of the government done by November 21st.”
On getting rid of the filibuster to end the shutdown:
“For the first time, I’m considering it. Look, all options are on the table right now. You know, I can argue both sides of this. And I truly have not decided. The arguments to do it are number one, we could plow right through President Trump’s America First agenda. We control the White House, the House, and the Senate; we could plow right on through it. And my fear is the next time the Democrats are in control of the Senate, there’s a 95% chance that they’ll end the filibuster. Okay, so those are the reasons to do it. Why don’t we, as Republicans? Remember, Pete, we should talk to your show sometime about the difference in a democracy and a republic, but a Republic protects the rights of the minority. We don’t take a vote twice a day to see what we should change the speeding limit to. We protect the rights of a minority in a Republic, and this filibuster protects the rights of the minority. So, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to get most things done, and that protects the rights of the minority. It keeps us from changing the tax laws every two years. It gives us more certainty. The role of the Senate is supposed to be if the House is the is the coffee cup, then we’re the saucer. We’re supposed to measure twice and cut once. We’re supposed to be more thoughtful. We have six-year terms, not two-year terms. So, it would be a huge change in the culture of the Senate. I can argue it both ways. I would prefer to keep the filibuster, but desperate times may call for desperate measures.”
On shutdown discussions with Senate colleagues:
“Yeah, so it’ll be tomorrow, every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, at lunchtime, we get together and have lunch for an hour, and that is when the real debates happen. There’s no cameras in there, there’s supposedly no one recording. That’s when the real debate happens within your own party. Now the Democrats only meet once a week, but we meet three times a week for an hour and a half, and it gets pretty down and dirty there. So, this will be a big discussion. I would say there are five or 10 of us that are, you know, would say okay, we need to consider this. And then there’s probably 10 or 15 that are just like hell no. There’s no way. They’re the institutionalists. They’ve been there forever. And I respect that. I respect, you know, keeping things the same to some extent as well. But like I said, these are desperate times. I would have never thought that we would have such polarized people in our parties, especially these far-left wacko Democrats who are the tail wagging the dog over there.”
“Oh gosh, you know, the sun came up. Patrick Mahomes got hit 15 times yesterday. McDuffie had 11 tackles. Your cornerback cannot have 11 tackles. Pete, it’s all the above. We got outplayed. We got hustled. We got outcoached. Hat tip perhaps to Buffalo. We’ll get back to work today. We got a bye week, and we got to patch up that offensive line.”
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Contact: Payton Fuller
