(The Center Square) – Southeast Wisconsin’s congressman says once the government reopens, hundreds of thousands of people in the state will see their food stamp benefits restored quickly.
Republican Congressman Bryan Steil told News talk 1130 WISN that it won’t take long to restart the program. But he said Democrats on Capitol Hill have to vote to reopen the government first.
“It would be very quickly,” Steil said. “You’d have to [see] how fast they can fund those programs, and sometimes there’s a day or two delay. But it would be near instantaneous for folks, that funding would then kick back on and flow through.”
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services says nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin receive SNAP or as it’s called in Wisconsin FoodShare.
Steil said those are the people, along with thousands of federal workers in the state, who are paying the price for what he calls the political games of Democrats.
“Democrats have voted for this time and again. In fact, Chuck Schumer voted for this multiple times in the past. And so you have to ask yourself what changed? What changed in the Democratic Party is the politics,” Steil said. “The policy has not changed. The politics have changed. Their radical base is demanding that they do anything to try to ‘stand up to
Trump.’ What does that mean? They’re willing to put American families through a ton of pain.”
As for when a vote may come to reopen the government, Steil said he didn’t know. But he echoed Vice President JD Vance who Thursday said Republicans will not surrender to the “hostage” situation created by Democrats.
“The Democrats are trying to cause pain to try to force Republicans to the table to capitulate to their demands. What we’re saying is we’re happy to have the conversation about different policy areas, but we’re not going to do it in a in an environment where you are holding hostage the American people, [and] countless paychecks. We should be doing this in a more reasonable and thoughtful way,” Steil said.
