A pair of federal judges this week told the Biden administration it must keep Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments flowing despite an ongoing shutdown, stepping into a funding fight that belongs in Congress, not the courtroom. That intervention may buy time for struggling families, but it also sets a dangerous precedent: unelected judges ordering the Treasury to spend when lawmakers refuse to do their jobs.
The courts ordered the USDA to tap contingency reserves to cover benefits, pointing to roughly $5 billion in emergency funds and warning that tens of millions of Americans rely on SNAP for basic sustenance. Even so, judges acknowledged payments could still be delayed by bureaucratic red tape — a reminder that temporary judicial fixes don’t replace the certainty that comes from Congress passing a real budget.
Enough of the theater. The simplest solution, as senators on both sides have bluntly observed, is to reopen the government with a clean continuing resolution so families and state offices can stop living hand-to-mouth. Senate Republicans — tired of partisan brinkmanship that punishes everyday Americans — are rightly pushing that practical path instead of piecemeal press plays and political virtue signaling from the left.
Let’s be clear: this shutdown is the result of calculated political warfare, and ordinary Americans are the ones paying the price while elites trade soundbites. If you care about children and the vulnerable, then you should want a durable funding solution, not a courtroom stopgap or a partisan grandstand that treats nutrition benefits like a pawn. Congress should grow a spine, do its job, and pass the funding that protects the nation’s food security.
Meanwhile, the Arctic Frost revelations continue to show why Americans distrust politicized law enforcement. Newly released records from Senate oversight show the FBI obtained government phones and even tolling data as part of the opaque Arctic Frost inquiry, raising alarming questions about partisan targeting and the weaponization of federal agencies against political opponents.
Republicans who genuinely care about the rule of law and about hungry families should use both truths — the SNAP emergency and the FBI revelations — to demand accountability and a return to normal governance. Reopen the government, secure funding for SNAP through regular order, and launch real oversight into the Arctic Frost abuses so taxpayers know their agencies serve justice, not politics. America’s hardworking families deserve nothing less.
