{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-speech-calling-for-end-to-schumer-shutdown-as-snap-benefits-hang-in-the-balance/", "Cassidy Delivers Speech Calling for End to Schumer Shutdown as SNAP Benefits Hang in the Balance", "2025-10-29", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "LA", "Bill Cassidy", "C001075", "www.cassidy.senate.gov", "cassidy", "https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) delivered a speech on the U.S. Senate floor slamming Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for the negative effects of the Schumer Shutdown, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits running out, leaving nearly 800,000 Louisianans without critical food assistance beginning November 1st.\n\n\u201cSNAP can be the difference between a child having a full belly and that same child asking their mother when is the next time they will eat a meal,\u201d said Dr. Cassidy.\n\n\u201cIf Democrats are interested in lowering health care costs as they say they are, then reopen the government, pay our troops, and stop taking food from our children,\u201d continued Dr. Cassidy.\n\nCassidy\u2019s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:\n\nMr. President,\n\nThe government has been shut down for nearly a month.\n\nIt\u2019s the longest full government shutdown in American history.\n\nAnd it all began with the Democrat Leader\u2019s desire to play politics with people\u2019s lives and paychecks.\n\nAmericans\u2014including those in Louisiana\u2014are paying the price.\n\nNationwide, 1.4 million federal employees, many living paycheck to paycheck, are furloughed or working without pay.\n\n13,000 air traffic controllers have already missed one paycheck and will miss another soon.\n\nSNAP\u2014or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program\u2014benefits will run out on November 1st in many states like Louisiana\u2014that\u2019s just two days away.\n\nIn my state alone, that\u2019s eight hundred and four thousand individuals, including three hundred and twelve thousand children who rely on SNAP.\n\nThis isn\u2019t some abstract ideological issue. We\u2019re literally talking about food on the table.\n\nSNAP can be the difference between a child having a full belly and that same child asking their mother when is the next time they will eat a meal.\n\nRepublicans are working to extend it\u2014I am on a bill to fund SNAP.\n\nBut it looks like we don\u2019t have the Democratic support to pass it.\n\nMr. President, that\u2019s a lot of empty dinner tables\u2014and a lot of children going to bed hungry.\n\nDemocrats have voted against reopening our government 13 times since.\n\n13 times they have voted to take food out of children\u2019s mouths and send families to the food banks instead.\n\nI\u2019m told that food banks will not be able to keep up. Federal workers, single parents with young kids\u2014walking into empty food banks.\n\nThis is coming from a party that regularly claims that they are the party of children, families, and vulnerable communities.\n\nRepublicans and the Trump administration are working hard to mitigate the worst parts of this shutdown.\n\nPresident Trump found the money to pay our troops.\n\nSenate Republicans voted for a bill to pay all federal employees, including our air traffic controllers, who are working without pay right now.\n\nDemocrats blocked it. They are the party of \u201cNO\u201d right now, and the bizarre part is, no one could figure out why.\n\nUntil one of their leaders said the quiet part out loud.\n\nThe House Democratic Whip acknowledged Democrats are allowing people to suffer because a shutdown: \u201c\u2026is one of the few leverage times we have.\u201d\n\nThis is the second-highest-ranking House Democrat openly confirming that working families are being used as political leverage.\n\nThis is all about politics, not what\u2019s best for the country.\n\nNow they will tell you it\u2019s about health care, but again their position crumbles under scrutiny.\n\nIf it were about health care costs, why would they make people suffer more in order to change health care policy rather than reopen the government and negotiate with Republicans on solutions which actually lower health care costs?\n\nRepublicans have repeatedly said we will negotiate how to lower health care costs, just not while Americans suffer.\n\nOur position is clear: End the shutdown, and then let\u2019s talk about health care.\n\nSeems reasonable. You might ask why they are still voting against reopening the government.\n\nIt\u2019s because they know their proposals on health care won\u2019t actually lower health care costs!\n\nUnder Democrats\u2019 current plan, premiums will still go up next year.\n\nNot to mention their proposed solution is just aimed at papering over the mess that Obamacare created, because the facts are clear: the Affordable Care Act did not make care affordable.\n\nAll of this seems one elaborate attempt to save face.\n\nWell, it\u2019s not working, and more importantly, Americans are suffering.\n\nI repeat, REOPEN the government, then let\u2019s have a conversation about the areas in health care we can address to actually lower premium costs and out-of-pocket costs for middle-class Americans.\n\nBy the way, the Democrats\u2019 current plan will only affect the seven percent of people on Obamacare.\n\nTheir plan ignores ninety-three percent of Americans, who will also see costs go up. We need to help all Americans by fixing our health care system, not just papering over the failures of Obamacare to only help a few.\n\nI\u2019ll add that for as much as they talk about health care, the Democrat\u2019s shutdown is defunding important health care programs. As Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I led a bipartisan effort to protect Americans\u2019 access to affordable over-the-counter drugs.\n\nThe members of my committee worked together to reauthorize the Over-the-counter Monograph Drug User Fee Program, sometimes referred to as OMUFA, which funds the review process to bring over-the-counter drugs to market.\n\nBecause of Democrats, for the first time in history, a user fee program has expired, meaning patient access to new over-the-counter treatments for common ailments is in jeopardy.\n\nI\u2019m a doctor. I want to tackle the numerous issues facing our health care system.\n\nI\u2019ve spent my whole career fighting for patients. Let\u2019s have a conversation about lowering costs for all Americans\u2014like those on Medicare, those with employer-sponsored insurance, and small business owners who provide insurance to their workers.\n\nIf Democrats are interested in lowering health care costs as they say they are, then reopen the government, pay our troops, and stop taking food from our children.\n\nI\u2019m tired of hearing people say there\u2019s no off-ramp or way out of this shutdown.\n\nHere it is, that\u2019s the way forward.\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://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-delivers-speech-calling-for-end-to-schumer-shutdown-as-snap-benefits-hang-in-the-balance/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7949941791594028, "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"}