{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-confronts-usda-ig-nominee-on-past-record/", "ICYMI: Warnock confronts USDA IG nominee on past record", "2025-10-30", "2025", "2025-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "GA", "Raphael G. Warnock", "W000790", "www.warnock.senate.gov", "warnock", "https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Video of the exchange reached over 400,000 views across social media platforms overnight\n\nIn the exchange, Senator Reverend Warnock grills Trump nom on his characterization that now eliminated federal food bank funding was a \u201cslush fund\u201d\n\nSenator Reverend Warnock: \u201cMr. Walk, do you still stand by your categorization of the emergency food assistance program as a quote slush fund\u2026 Food banks in Georgia disagree with that characterization, I\u2019ll tell you that. And they tell me that canceling this federal support has made it harder to feed hungry Georgians, and has meant that more families and children in Georgia go hungry\u201d\n\nICYMI from Agriculture Policy outlet The Hagstrom Report: Warnock confronts USDA IG nominee on past record\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 ICYMI, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) grilled U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Inspector General nominee John Walk about his May 2025 letter to Senator Warnock, which he called now eliminated federal food bank funding a \u201cslush fund.\u201d Mr. Walk said he had no recollection of referring to this life-saving funding as a \u201cslush fund.\u201d The video clip of the exchange has gone viral across social media platforms.\n\nPrior to this nomination, Mr. Walk served as Acting Deputy Under Secretary for the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services when the Administration made the decision to cut $500 million from food banks. That included 2 million gallons of milk, 27 million pounds of chicken, 67 million eggs, and 10 million pounds of dried fruit that was set to go to millions of American children and families. Mr. Walk said he was not involved in the elimination of $500 million in food bank funding, but inexplicably was one of the leading voices at USDA defending the decision to members of Congress.\n\n\u201cMr. Walk, do you still stand by your categorization of the emergency food assistance program as a quote slush fund?\u201d Senator Reverend Warnock asked Mr. Walk. \u201cYou\u2019re not aware of your own letter? That\u2019s a pretty serious accusation that funds intended to go to food banks to support hungry people is a slush fund. Food banks in Georgia disagree with that characterization, I\u2019ll tell you that. And they tell me that canceling this federal support has made it harder to feed hungry Georgians, and has meant that more families and children in Georgia go hungry.\u201d\n\nThe Senator continued to question Mr. Walk on the Trump Administration\u2019s current decision to cut off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding for 42 million Americans next month despite having ample funds to continue the life-saving program. The nominee dodged questions on the $5 billion available to fund SNAP that the Trump Administration is choosing to not use.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re deciding to pit hungry people against sick people, and I think that\u2019s immoral,\u201d continued Senator Warnock. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing legally stopping the administration from making emergency food assistance funds that they\u2019re just sitting on available for Georgia kids and families in November\u2026 It is indisputable that the USDA under the Trump Administration is choosing to pull hungry children into this fight. They\u2019re not just in this fight. They\u2019re being pulled into this fight, used as pawns for short-term political gain. I think it\u2019s deeply immoral, and I think we can certainly do better than that.\u201d\n\nSenator Warnock is a champion for SNAP, which helps families afford groceries. The Senator, along with Senator Ossoff, recently signed onto a new oversight effort urging USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to release the billions of dollars at its disposal to ensure SNAP benefits continue in November.\n\nExcerpts from The Hagstrom Report here:\n\nWhen John Walk, President Trump\u2019s nominee to be Agriculture Department inspector general, testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., asked him whether he had been involved in a decision to cancel a food distribution grant that was supposed to go to a Georgia food bank.\n\nWalk, who was serving as Agriculture acting deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, said he had no involvement in that decision.\n\nWarnock replied that when he had written Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about the decision, he had received a letter from Walk in which he described the food distribution program as \u201ca slush fund.\u201d\n\nWalk answered that he could not remember the letter.\n\n\u201cYou are not aware of your own letter?\u201d Warnock asked.\n\nWarnock also said the accusation was \u201cpretty serious\u201d and that \u201cfood banks in Georgia disagree with that characterization.\u201d\n\nWarnock then asked Walk whether he was aware of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency fund that Democrats say the Trump administration could use to make SNAP payments in November even though the government is closed.\n\nWalk said he could not discuss the contingency fund because it is the subject of litigation.\n\nThe SNAP contingency fund is in litigation because the Trump administration is pitting hungry people against sick people, Warnock said, a reference to the Democrats\u2019 insistence that they won\u2019t vote for a continuing resolution to reopen the government until the Republicans agree to negotiations to continue subsidies for premiums under the Affordable Care Act.\n\nCanceling this federal support has made it harder to feed hungry Georgians, Warnock said, putting more strain on food banks as 1.4 million Georgians are about to lose SNAP benefits.\n\nPulling poor children into the fight over ACA subsidies, Warnock said, \u201cis deeply immoral.\u201d\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.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/icymi-warnock-confronts-usda-ig-nominee-on-past-record/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8543441072106361, "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"}