FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is looking to hold Democrats’ “feet to the fire” with new legislation seeking special funding for farmers and food assistance programs amid the government shutdown.
Hawley’s bills would reinstate federal funding for the Farm Service Agency as well as the federal SNAP food program. Democrats have so far refused to work with Republicans amid the government shutdown, now the second-longest in U.S. history.
“We need to start forcing Democrats to make some tough votes. We need to start holding their feet to the fire,” Hawley said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I mean, do they really not want people to be able to eat? This situation is ridiculous.”
He says the farm bill is critical as the shutdown has landed squarely in harvest season for much of the country, including his home state of Missouri.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has led Republicans in voting to fund the government eleven times since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, but Democrats have refused to cooperate, demanding extensive changes to the budget.
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President Donald Trump has taken executive action to secure funding for members of the military, but the vast majority of the government remains stalled.
“I have huge respect for what President Trump has done during this shutdown with shifting the funding pools available to him to help servicemembers and police. But even he is going to run out of tools soon,” Hawley said.
Trump, speaking to Hawley and other Senate Republicans at the White House on Tuesday, accused Democrats of “holding the entire federal government hostage.”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, R-N.Y., has remained obstinate, in his demands for an extension to expiring Obamacare subsidies. Though Senate Republicans have been open to holding a vote on the matter after the government reopens, Democrats want an ironclad guarantee that the subsidies will be extended well before their expiration at the end of this year.
Thune reiterated at the White House on Tuesday that Senate Republicans are united in their war of attrition strategy to continue putting the same bill on the floor again and again.
“I mean, they want $1.5 trillion in new spending. They want free healthcare for people who are noncitizens in this country. That is just a flat nonstarter. It doesn’t pass the Senate. It won’t pass the House. It won’t be signed into law by the president,” Thune said.
Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.
