WH Briefing Room: Breaking Down the Shutdown: Senate Deal, SNAP Benefits, and Washington Fallout

In this episode, Jon Decker breaks down the latest developments in Washington as the Senate reaches a deal to reopen the federal government. Learn how the agreement affects Obamacare subsidies, federal workers, and key programs like SNAP. Decker also covers the House’s next move, what this means for both parties ahead of election season, and how air travel disruptions and new military activity near Venezuela are adding pressure to an already tense political moment.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Wednesday, November twelfth.
I'm John Decker. It's day forty three of the federal
government shutdown, and today's the day it will likely come
to an end. The Supreme Court says the Trump administration
can continue withholding funds to pay snap benefits, and the

(00:23):
Navy's largest aircraft carrier is now in waters near Latin America,
a move aimed at putting pressure on Venezuela. But we
begin this Wednesday with the deal to reopen the federal government.
The Senate on Monday voted sixty to forty to pass
a bill to fund military construction, veterans affairs, and the

(00:46):
Department of Agriculture and the Legislative Branch. That bill passed
the Senate after eight Democrats join Republican supporters in the
vote to reopen the federal government to pass an continuing resolution.
The House is reconvening on Wednesday. They haven't been in
session since mid September, and they're reconvening to vote on

(01:10):
this bill to reopen the federal government. The deal struck
between Senate Republicans and those eight Democrats to reopen the
government allows for federal paychecks to resume. It also stipulates
that there will be a vote in mid December on
expanding those expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Now, during the

(01:33):
duration of this very long shutdown, Democrats have maintained that
the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are expiring at
the end of this year, need to be extended. The
current Appropriation's bill says nothing about extending those subsidies, but
according to this compromise deal that is leading to the

(01:55):
reopening of the federal government the Senate, Republicans who control
the Senate have agreed to hold a vote on extending
those subsidies that would be held during the second week
of December December sixteenth. Without those tax credits, prices on
premiums for insurance purchased through Obamacare are expected to increase substantially. Now.

(02:18):
Republicans in the Senate are largely against the Affordable Care Act.
They support the idea proposed by President Trump of repealing
and replacing Obamacare, and as a result, that measure, once
it's taken in mid December, is not likely to pass
the Senate. The continuing resolution does allow the government to

(02:40):
be funded until January thirtieth, and that gives lawmakers some
time to craft spending bills that would cover the full
fiscal year. Of course, we are unlikely to see that happen,
and as a result, come January thirtieth, there will be
talking again about passing another can continuing Resolution and we

(03:01):
could face the possibility of another government shutdown. Now, this
Senate deal carries three year long funding bills, which are
collectively called a minibus. One bill funds the Department of Agriculture,
including full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs SNAP.

(03:21):
Another goes toward military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And another part of this continuing resolution allows for salaries
to be paid toward the legislative branch of government. All
the staffers who are actually writing this Continuing Resolution will
now finally get paid, and they will also get the

(03:45):
back pay for all of the weeks in which they
were not getting paid because of the government shutdown. The
end of the shutdown also allows furloughed federal workers to
return to work, and back pay will go to them
as well. The deal would also reverse the Trump administration's
layoffs that took place during the shutdown. About four thousand

(04:07):
layoffs were made by the Trump administration during the course
of this government shutdown. Now, a federal judge blocked the
Trump administration from laying off federal employees during the shutdown
in early October, and the continuing resolution that will be
voted on Wednesday, that's already past. The US Senate orders

(04:28):
any federal worker who is laid off to be returned
to employment status as of September thirtieth, twenty twenty five.
It's backdated without interruption. Now, what will happen in the
House of Representatives. What's expected is a vote largely along
party lines. Republicans will fall in line. They will support

(04:50):
the position not only by the House Speaker Mike Johnson,
he supports this continuing resolution, but also by President Trump.
He too has said not only does he support this
continuing resolution, but once it gets to his desk for
his signature, perhaps by the end of the day on Wednesday,
he will sign it and the government shutdown will be over.

(05:12):
But we also know that the leader for Democrats in
the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, does not support this
deal that was struck among those eight Democratic senators. He
put a post out on the social media platform x
and he wrote, we will not support spending legislation advanced

(05:33):
by Senate Republicans that fails to extend Affordable Care Act
tax credits. He continued, we will fight the GOP bill
in the House of Representatives where Mike Johnson will be
compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer funded vacation.
And that last line by Hakeem Jeffries refers to the

(05:56):
fact that the House has been out of session since
September the nineteenth, almost two full months. Now, we know
that mister Jeffries will be offering an amendment to this
continuing resolution. He will propose a three year extension of
those soon to expire Obamacare subsidies at the center of

(06:20):
this shutdown fight. Both Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic whip,
Congresswoman Catherine Clark of Massachusetts, will offer this amendment this
legislation to the Senate pass spending agreement during a meeting
of the Rules Committee. That amendment, however, is all but

(06:40):
guaranteed to fail. Republicans hold the majority on the Rules Committee,
and of course, so many Republicans on that very same
committee oppose the Affordable Care Act they've sought to repeal
it many times since its creation fifteen years ago. But
the idea behind this amendment, even though it's going to fail,

(07:02):
is to put Republican lawmakers on the record for opposing
an extension of those enhanced ACA tax credits. Those tax
credits benefit more than twenty million Americans, and those twenty
million Americans, many of whom are in red states, it
is believed, will be upset by that decision by the

(07:25):
Republican majority of the House. They will face huge spikes
and premiums and other out of pocket health costs if
Congress does not intervene in any way before January the first. So,
while many Democrats believe that while they may have lost
the battle over those ACA subsidies in this long shutdown fight,

(07:49):
they may win the so called war, the political war,
and that's because they believe that Republicans could face a
backlash in next years midterm elections. Another reason why this
bill is getting a lot of attention is because of
the disruptions in air travel at America's airports all across

(08:11):
the country, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday warned
of what he called massively more disruption in air travel
if the ongoing government shutdown continues into the weekend, he
said at a press conference on Tuesday, You're going to
see this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday big disruption. Thus far,

(08:34):
massively more disruption as we come into the weekend if
the government doesn't open. Flights at forty airports throughout the
US were reduced by six percent on Tuesday at the
direction of the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration. Even though
the government shutdown appears close to ending, and another issue

(08:56):
that has been affected by the government shutdown is payments
on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the Supreme
Court on Tuesday said the Trump administration could continue for
now to withhold funds to pay the full amount of
federal food assistance benefits for November. There was one descent

(09:20):
in that ruling by the Supreme Court. It was by
Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. The court's order said Judge Jackson,
who granted the initial administrative stay, would have denied the
administration's request for an extension now. SNAP benefits have been
in flux since the Trump administration announced it was suspending

(09:43):
payments for November because of the lapse in appropriations caused
by the federal government shutdown. Finally, more attention on what's
happening off the coast of Venezuela. The Navy's largest aircraft carrier,
the USS Gerald R. Ford, has now entered waters near

(10:05):
Latin America, and that has prompted Venezuela to put its
entire military arsenal on full alert. That naval build up
is fueling speculation that the Trump administration intends to dramatically
escalate its deadly counter narcotics campaign there. The Ford and

(10:25):
its three accompanying warships arrived in the region on Tuesday.
That's according to a press release put out by the
Department of the Navy. The ships were not yet in
the Caribbean Sea, but had crossed into the US Southern
Command's jurisdiction, and that includes parts of the Atlantic Ocean

(10:46):
and the drug smuggling roots in the Pacific used by
cartels that are based in both Columbia and neighboring Ecuador.
According to a statement put out by the Pentagon, these
forces will enhance an augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics
trafficking and degrade and dismantle trans national criminal organizations. Now,

(11:12):
Venezuela's defense minister put out a statement of his own
that said that Venezuela is preparing to set a maximum
level of alert amid rising tensions with the US. The
leader of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, has ordered a massive deployment
of soldiers, almost two hundred thousand, as part of a

(11:35):
special operation that's aimed at countering this build up. This
military build up in the waters off of Venezuela. Now.
The Ford is the Navy's most modern and largest carrier.
It has four thousand sailors on board, and it's accompanied
by three destroyers. And the arrival of that aircraft carrier

(11:57):
pushes the number of US troops in the region to
about fifteen thousand. So far, nineteen military strikes disclosed by
the Trump administration have destroyed small speedboats in the Caribbean
Sea and in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and the President
has talked publicly about expanding that campaign to include targets

(12:21):
on the land. The president has said publicly that Medoro's
days as president of Venezuela are, in his words, number
as for Wednesday, just one item on the President's schedule.
It's a dinner that he's hosting a private dinner in
the State Dining Room that will be at seven thirty pm.
There is a White House Press briefing today that will

(12:44):
be conducted by White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. That's
at one o'clock Eastern time in the afternoon. That's the
White House Briefing Room for Wednesday, November twelfth. I'm John Decker.
Have a good one.