欧博abgPatty Murray votes against SNAP funds, blames
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) was brutally fact checked for a spurious claim about funding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food stamps to over 40 million Americans. SNAP funding is scheduled to dry up by the end of the week because of the Democrats’ government shutdown.
In a video, the Washington Senator claimed that President Donald Trump is “choosing to let kids go hungry” by refusing to tap billions in a contingency fund that “specifically exists to keep SNAP benefits flowing.” She charged the administration with “betraying hungry kids and families” and referenced a refusal to act despite “billions of dollars just sitting in a fund” that could keep benefits going.
The President cannot, in fact, tap the funding she claims. In fact, during Trump’s first term, Murray fought to stop him from engaging in this exact kind of financial maneuvering, calling it an “egregious use of power.”
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Patty Murray and Democrats are why SNAP funding will go dryUnder Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress holds the purse strings. Appropriations for federal spending, which include nutrition programs like SNAP, require congressional authorization and appropriation. Murray’s claim that the President can simply “tap billions” and keep SNAP benefits flowing unilaterally is misleading. The law delegates the spending decision to Congress—not the executive branch acting alone.
SNAP is a federal program funded by money from the U.S. Treasury. Therefore, according to the Constitution, funding for SNAP cannot be spent unless Congress passes a law—an appropriations bill—authorizing that spending.
The way to fund SNAP would be to vote to fund it, as Republicans have attempted. Murray voted against funding SNAP when she voted 13 times to keep the government shutdown by rejecting a continuing resolution (CR). In other words: yes, SNAP benefits and other programs are endangered—but not because of the President’s inaction. Democrats in the legislative branch failed to act. The shutdown was enabled by Murray’s vote.
On X, Murray was called out.
You are choosing that! You are the holdout!
— Travis Couture (@TravisSCouture) October 27, 2025
Maybe you should open the government.
— Snarky Tea Smuggler (@SullyBobbi) October 27, 2025
Senator Murray. You know that the President can’t legally use emergency funds to pay for SNAP benefits.
You should do your job and vote to reopen the government so SNAP benefits aren’t disrupted.
— pebbles (@pebbles9677) October 27, 2025
Patty Murray previously was against what she says she now demandsDuring his first term, President Trump attempted to redirect funds for the U.S.–Mexico border wall by declaring a national emergency and using transfer authority to take billions appropriated for other purposes. At that time Sen. Murray blasted it as an “egregious abuse of power” and “horrific and un-American.”
She argued the President could not circumvent Congress. That was the Democratic position then. Now she accuses the same President of refusing to use funds that she claims should be used—even though the same constitutional logic she defended then would prohibit unilateral executive action now.
If Sen. Murray is sincerely worried about hungry children, the first stop would be backing a clean continuing resolution to keep SNAP funded. Yet she voted against the Republican funding patch. If the result is SNAP disruption, the accountability lies not with the White House but with Senate Democrats who blocked the funding until policy demands were met.
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