Adam Schiff says he is shocked by 'cruelty' motivating SNAP policy

Source: Politico

11/09/2025 12:55 PM EST


Sen. Adam Schiff said Sunday that “cruelty” seems to be motivating the Trump administration’s policies on food aid for needy Americans. Speaking to host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week,” the California Democrat said: “One thing that is just so shocking to me, George, in the midst of all of this, they’re appealing to the Supreme Court for the right to cut off food from people. ”He added: “Who does that? Who works so hard? Who goes all the way through the court system to cut food from people who need it right now? But that’s where they’re coming from. The cruelty is part of the policy.”

President Donald Trump appealed last week to the Supreme Court to block a lower court’s order that required his administration to provide full funding for SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown. After Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary relief Friday night, the Department of Agriculture told states not to pay full food stamp benefits for the month of November.

In the ABC interview, Schiff said that Senate Democrats last week offered a compromise to end the shutdown by approving a one-year extension of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the proposal “a nonstarter” and said: “There is no way. The Obamacare extension is the negotiation.”

Schiff scoffed. “We said: Let’s extend existing law for a year, give us more time to work on this, and re-open the government,” he told Stephanopoulos.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/09/adam-schiff-cruelty-snap-food-stamps-00643926