{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stanton.house.gov/2025/10/stanton-demands-usda-secretary-continue-snap-benefits-during-shutdown", "Stanton Demands USDA Secretary Continue SNAP Benefits During Shutdown", "2025-10-24", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Greg Stanton", "S001211", "stanton.house.gov", "stanton", "https://stanton.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Congressman Greg Stanton and 212 House Democrats sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, demanding that she utilize the Congressionally authorized SNAP contingency fund to provide food assistance to hungry Americans as the Republican shutdown approaches its second month.\n\nSNAP benefits were made available to eligible individuals in October, but due to the Agriculture Secretary\u2019s unwillingness to use her statutory transfer authority along with the roughly $5 billion SNAP contingency fund to deliver benefits in November, more than 880,000 Arizona seniors, veterans and families with children risk not being able to keep food on their table.\n\nThe lawmakers state, \u201cUSDA\u2019s shutdown plan acknowledges that \u2018Congressional intent is evident that SNAP\u2019s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds...\u2019 USDA still has significant funding available in SNAP\u2019s contingency reserve \u2013 which Congress provides precisely for this reason \u2013 that can be used to fund the bulk of November benefits\u2026 Additionally, while the contingency reserve will not cover November benefits in full, we urge USDA to use its statutory transfer authority or any other legal authority at its disposal to supplement these dollars and fully fund November benefits.\u201d\n\nThey continue, \u201cThere are clear steps the administration can and must take immediately to ensure that millions of families across the country can put food on their table in November. Choosing not to ensure SNAP benefits reach those in need this November would be a gross dereliction of your responsibilities to the American people.\u201d\n\nThe full letter is HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "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://stanton.house.gov/2025/10/stanton-demands-usda-secretary-continue-snap-benefits-during-shutdown"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.443968154489994, "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"}