Ciscomani, Gallego spar over using food-aid worries as political 'leverage'

Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego are trading charges, with each saying the other side is using people’s worries about SNAP food aid running out as political leverage during the government shutdown.

Ciscomani said Democrats are using the concerns about furloughed government workers not getting paid, as well as about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds drying up, as their leverage in the four-week-long federal shutdown.

Washington “is not working,” he said, “because congressional Democrats shut it down and have made it clear keeping the government shut down “is the leverage they have.”

“They’re using SNAP benefits, they’re using people not getting paid as leverage to put their policy agenda forward. This is not the way we do things,” Ciscomani, who represents Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, said in a brief question-and-answer session Thursday in Oro Valley with reporters.

“Every single one of them have made comments in the past about not using the shutdown in this manner, not using it as leverage, not using it as something that they can push their legislative agenda through, but that’s exactly what they’re doing now,” Ciscomani said.

Separately, Gallego made similar charges, but against Republican President Donald Trump.

Trump is “using people’s hunger as leverage to raise their health care costs,” Gallego said Thursday in a written statement, referring to the upcoming expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which Democrats are pushing Republicans to extend.

The shutdown, in its 30th day by Thursday, will stretch into next week, putting it on track to become the longest in history. The record, a 35-day gap that ended in early 2019 during Trump’s first term, was due to Trump’s demands to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall, the Associated Press reported.

The House has remained closed for the past month under Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

The White House has moved money around to ensure the military is paid, but refuses to tap funds for food aid. Funding for food stamps under SNAP is set to expire on Saturday, which would leave over 40 million Americans, including nearly 900,000 Arizonans, without access. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” signed into law this summer, delivered the most substantial cut ever to SNAP, and is projected to result in taking some 2.4 million people off the program, the Associated Press reported.

Ciscomani said the contingency funds the Trump administration could use for food aid wouldn’t stretch any more than two weeks, and are already pre-allocated for natural disasters and hurricanes as “several hurricanes” are being tracked right now.

“The president did that in order to pay for the troops’ last pay cycle. He also did that in order to be able to fund WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) through tariff money as well. So where there’s been flexibility, the administration has been able to do that,” Ciscomani said. “(But) not all places offer that or offer that opportunity without hurting a fund, like there is for natural disasters, which that season is coming for some areas of the country. So it puts everyone in a very hard position.

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“Again, all this can end if the government reopens and we’re just five votes away and two from Arizona to keep voting against it,” he said, referring to Gallego and fellow Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

The continuing resolution up for a vote currently, Ciscomani said, has already been negotiated on because it is the same as one passed last year. The Senate did not vote on the House-passed continuing resolution Thursday, CBS News reported, and the upper chamber will not meet again until Monday.

Ciscomani told reporters that if it was good enough to pass last year, “let’s pass it now” and get a seven-week stopgap.

“When I hear the talks about bipartisanship and coming together, making concessions, this CR is a perfect example of that. We’ve done that, and the Democrats continue to reject it,” he said. “What the Democrats are demanding is something that they know that they wouldn’t give, and nobody can, because it’s something that we already negotiated and we’re voting on and all of a sudden, because the person in the White House changed, they refused to support. That’s wrong, because they’re leveraging the pain of people only for their political good.”

Any fix for high health care costs, which Democrats are holding out for, remains out of reach, as Republicans say they can address that issue later, once the government reopens, a sentiment Ciscomani echoed Thursday.

“The main thing that can really save not only SNAP but everything else out there is to actually open the government again,” Ciscomani said. “The best and easiest way to fund SNAP, pay the troops, be able to pay everybody that hasn’t been paid and reopen the government is to go through the process of passing that CR.”

Reopening the government would also lead to the swearing-in of Ciscomani’s soon-to-be counterpart from Tucson, Democratic U.S. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, he said.

“I’ve been public about swearing in Adelita Grijalva as soon as the government opens,” Ciscomani said. “All these things will happen as soon as that CR gets passed, and the only one standing in the way of that are Senate Democrats, including our own two Arizona senators, Senator Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego.”

Grijalva countered on Instagram later Thursday: “In order for the shutdown to end, Congress has to be in session. And right now, the House has worked 19 days in four months. I don’t know any job that you can do that. So, what I hope Juan (Ciscomani) will be doing is calling on his leadership to get back to work, because guess what? Then we end the shutdown and I get sworn in. It’s a twofer.”

Grijalva, who was elected by Congressional District 7 voters on Sept. 23, has waited over a month to be sworn in, but Johnson has blocked it, citing the shutdown, although he previously swore in two Republican members when the House wasn’t in formal session.

Arizona’s senators, too, are pointing fingers across the aisle when it comes to the shutdown.

“The president who promised to lower costs is literally taking food off of working families’ tables. Donald Trump has the power to ensure Arizonans continue receiving their SNAP benefits, and he’s choosing not to,” Gallego said, in announcing he is joining New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján to introduce the “Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025.”

“Our bill will make sure the 900,000 Arizonans who rely on SNAP continue receiving the food assistance they need,” Gallego said in a news release.

Kelly is also backing the legislation. “Millions of Americans are already struggling with higher grocery prices because of President Trump’s tariffs, and now he wants to make it worse by letting people go hungry,” Kelly said Tuesday. “The president has billions of dollars at his disposal to prevent a lapse in SNAP benefits, but he’s choosing to hurt working families and use them as political pawns in this shutdown.”