{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4804", "The Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus calls for emergency SNAP funding", "2025-10-30", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Chrissy Houlahan", "H001085", "houlahan.house.gov", "houlahan", "https://houlahan.house.gov/press/documentquery.aspx", "page_html", "Calling the decision to halt nutrition funding that feeds 42 million Americans \u2013 2 million of them her fellow Pennsylvanians \u2013 \u201cnot a budget problem,\u201d but \u201ca moral problem,\u201d U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and her colleagues on the congressional Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus urged the federal government to maintain operations of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through contingency funding.\n\n\u201cThere is a $5 billion contingency fund sitting at the Department of Agriculture right now, created for emergencies just like this one, that can be legally used to fund SNAP right now,\u201d said Houlahan, who chairs the caucus\u2019s Servicewomen, Women Veterans, & Military Families Task Force, in a Thursday afternoon press call. \u201cThey can unfreeze this money \u2026 They can feed our veterans and they can feed our families today; they\u2019re just choosing not to.\u201d\n\nIf no action is taken, SNAP will become the latest victim of the month-long federal government shutdown on Nov. 1, when existing funding is due to expire. The women\u2019s caucus has spotlighted this issue because a majority of recipients \u2013 26 million \u2013 are women and girls. Nearly 40% of those relying on the program for food are children, another 20% are elderly and an additional 10% have a disability.\n\n\u201cHere in Pennsylvania\u2019s Sixth (Congressional) District \u2026 88,000 of our neighbors could go hungry \u2013 28,000 people in Chester County and nearly 60,000 in Berks,\u201d said Houlahan. More than a million U.S. veterans \u2013 60,000 of them in Pennsylvania \u2013 also rely on SNAP, as well as 13% of current military households, according to Houlahan, a third-generation military veteran and a ranking member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee for the Committee on Armed Services.\n\n\u201cIn just days, we will collectively be celebrating Veterans Day,\u201d she added. \u201cWhat does it say about this administration that it\u2019s willing to let more than a million veterans go hungry on the very day that we purportedly honor their service?\u201d\n\nHer caucus colleague, U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, the ranking member on the Nutrition Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee, pointed out that SNAP benefits have never been allowed to lapse since the program\u2019s inception. During the current impasse, however, the federal government has thus far not committed to alternative funding arrangements.\n\n\u201cIn every other previous shutdown, there has always been a commitment to states to be reimbursed, or cards had been preloaded \u2026 to make sure that people did not go hungry while these negotiations were being worked out,\u201d said Hayes, who introduced herself as a former SNAP recipient.\n\nOne after another, the caucus members decried the Trump administration\u2019s financial priorities, including restoring funding to the military during the shutdown. \u201cHe\u2019s sending $40 billion to Argentina, but refusing to spend the $5 billion USDA has in the bank for SNAP. USDA also has another $30 billion in contingency funds it could utilize,\u201d said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico.\n\nHoulahan offered a personal testimony of the importance of nutrition: Early in her career, she taught chemistry at a school where 98% of students qualified for free and reduced lunch.\n\n\u201cWhen partisan politics hurt military families and hurt people in my district \u2013 and hurt the kinds of kids that I taught \u2013 that\u2019s not an abstract concept to me,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s personal.\u201d", 1, "2026-04-08T14:14:11Z", "2026-04-08T14:23:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4804"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5123090706765652, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}