Live updates: USDA says it will fully fund November SNAP benefits during appeal process
President Donald trump held a meeting at the White House today with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
What to know today...
- trump MEETING: President Donald trump met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House today. The two leaders discussed trade and energy, among other topics.
- SNAP FUNDING: The Department of Agriculture said it would fully fund November SNAP benefits while a case over pausing the food assistance during the government shutdown works through the courts. The announcement comes after The trump administration asked an appeals court to pause a judge's order requiring full funding of November SNAP benefits by today.
- AIRLINE CUTS: An FAA order cutting back on flights at 40 major airports to ease pressure on airports and staffers as a result of the shutdown kicked in today. Travelers can expect hundreds of flight cancellations and longer wait times at airports as a result. The shutdown is now in its 38th day.
- STEFANIK RUNNING: Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is launching a run for governor in New York. trump nominated Stefanik, a six-term congresswoman, for U.N. ambassador before pulling her nomination amid concerns about the slim GOP majority in the House.
trump administration asks Supreme Court to prevent full funding of SNAP by 9:30 p.m. tonight
The trump administration is asking the Supreme Court, by 9:30 p.m. ET tonight, to prevent them from having to fully fund SNAP for the 40 million plus Americans who rely on the government assistance program.
“This Court’s intervention is urgently needed," said Solicitor General D John Sauer in an application to pause the orders. "To comply with yesterday’s abrupt TRO [temporary restraining order], the government must transfer billions of dollars to SNAP and send that money to the States by tonight. Once those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds—to the significant detriment of those other critical social programs whose budgets the district court ordered the government to raid.”
“In the immediate term, an administrative stay is warranted so this Court can review this application, before it is too late to fix the errors below.”
It’s important to note, the USDA said it was fully funding SNAP earlier today. So it’s very likely some SNAP beneficiaries across the country already have money in their EBT accounts, making this issue moot.
Democrats block bill to pay federal workers during shutdown
Senate Democrats voted to block a bill that would pay federal workers, both furloughed and those who are working, during the government shutdown, with a 60-vote procedural motion failing in the Senate, 53-43.
Three Democrats — Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both of Georgia, and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico — joined Republicans in voting to advance the measure.
“Look, I want people to get paid,” Lujan told NBC News about his YES vote. “All these officers [...] they don’t get to say, I’m not going to show up to work. They have to show up to work."
Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, John Fetterman, D-Penn., Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., missed the vote.
The Senate will return tomorrow at noon, with no votes locked into the schedule yet. It’s unclear if the Senate will conduct any real work during the rare Saturday session, or if they will head the call by trump to stay in town until they reach a resolution (or nuke the filibuster to fund the government with just a simple majority).
Senate passes bill to nearly quadruple Medal of Honor recipients' pension
The Senate unanimously passed a bill today that would dramatically increase the monthly pension given to Medal of Honor recipients, as well as provide a monthly pension for surviving spouses.
The bill, which has already passed in the House of Representatives, would increase the monthly pension from $1,406.73 a month to $5,625 a month.
The bill now goes to trump’s desk for his signature.
Vance no longer going to G20 in South Africa
Vice President JD Vance will no longer attend the G20 summit in South Africa later, a source familiar with the planning told NBC News — and trump says no U.S. officials will go.
“The vice president is not traveling to South Africa for the G20, nor does he have any plans for international travel in the near term,” a source familiar with the planning told NBC News.
trump complained to reporters earlier this week about South Africa hosting the annual summit, and said he would not attend. "I'm not going to represent our country there. It shouldn't be there," he said.
He took a firmer stand today on Truth Social, saying "No U.S. government official" would attend because of ongoing "human rights abuses" that he alleged are being carried out against Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority group that controlled South Africa during apartheid.
trump has repeatedly complained about the treatment of Afrikaners during his second term in office. It was revealed last week that the U.S. would be limiting refugee admissions for the new fiscal year to a record low of 7,500, and the president directed those slots “shall primarily be allocated among Afrikaners from South Africa.”
Trust for the National Mall avoids most lawmaker questions about White House ballroom project
Hours before the deadline today, the Trust for the National Mall mostly evaded questions in response to a letter from Democratic senators concerned about trump’s White House ballroom project.
Neither did the trust, a non-profit group based in Washington, D.C., provide the documentation that the lawmakers had requested.
NBC News has previously reported that the trust is stewarding the millions of dollars in private donations paying for the 90,000 square foot ballroom, though in the past it has focused on smaller, non-partisan projects like preserving Washington, D.C.’s cherry blossom trees and renovating horse stables on the National Mall.
The Democratic lawmakers had expressed deep skepticism about the organization’s role as a conduit for the private donations bankrolling the project.
Education Department’s out-of-office messages blaming Democrats for the shutdown are unconstitutional, judge rules
A federal judge today ruled that the partisan language added to out-of-office email messages of furloughed Education Department employees violates their First Amendment rights.
The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed last month against the trump administration by members of the American Federation of Government Employees over the alteration of employees’ emails without their consent.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper today characterized the message, which said the contacted employee was furloughed due to “Democrat Senators” blocking a Republican funding bill, as “commandeering…employees’ email accounts to broadcast partisan messages.”
The ruling applies only to Education Department employees who are members of the union that brought the lawsuit, though Cooper specified that the court will order the department to remove the messaging from all affected employees’ email accounts if it is technologically impossible to “immediately remove partisan messaging” from only AFGE members’ accounts.
Ex-judges, prosecutors warn Letitia James case embodies creeping tyranny
A bipartisan group of former judges and federal prosecutors said in a brief Friday that a trump loyalist’s prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James on mortgage-related charges presents “the precise danger to the rule of law which the Founders sought to eliminate in creating an independent judiciary” and is an “embodiment of the creeping ‘accumulation of all powers’ which leads to tyranny.”
They described the indictment of James as an “assault” on American principles of justice, pointed to the unusual appointment of Lindsey Halligan, an insurance attorney an trump loyalist who had zero prosecutorial experience before indicting James and former FBI Director James Comey. Lawyers are challenging the legitimacy of her appointment.
“If this Court allows the indictment against Attorney General James to proceed, it will ratify the President’s decision to breach the barricades created by the structure of the Constitution itself. in order to amass excessive and inappropriate power,” the amicus brief states.
James has pleaded not guilty and argues that the case is a selective and vindictive prosecution.
USDA says it will fully fund SNAP program while case challenging shutdown pause works through courts
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has informed states that they will immediately begin fully funding the SNAP program in the wake of a court order from a judge in Rhode Island instructing the administration to do so.
In the memo obtained by NBC News, Patrick Penn, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services informed states that the funds will be available as soon as today.
The trump Administration has appealed the court’s ruling, but in the interim will comply with the order as the issue works its way through the courts.
trump pardons former MLB star Darryl Strawberry
President Donald trump has approved a pardon for baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, according to a White House official.
Strawberry is a three-time World Series champion and eight-time MLB All-Star who “served time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion,” the official said.
“Following his career, Mr. Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for over a decade — he has become active in ministry and started a recovery center which still operates today,” the White House official said.
Strawberry thanked the president in a post on Instagram.
“Thank you, President @realdonaldtrump for my full pardon and for finalizing this part of my life, allowing me to be truly free and clean from all of my past,” he wrote.
Schumer lays out new Democratic proposal to reopen the government
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., today on the Senate floor unveiled the Democrats’ new proposal to reopen the government.
Schumer said the offer would involve a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act tax benefits, a clean stopgap government funding bill to reopen the government to allow appropriators time to finish full-year spending bills, a package of three already-passed full-year appropriation bills and a bipartisan committee that would continue negotiations on reforms ahead of next year’s enrollment period.
“This is a reasonable offer that reopens the government’s deals with health care affordability and begins a process of negotiating reforms to the ACA tax credits for the future. Now, the ball is in the Republicans’ court. We need Republicans to just say yes,” Schumer said.
House to remain out of session next week
The House will continue to be out of session next week, as Speaker Mike Johnson has again designated it as a district work period. The announcement was made during the House’s pro forma session this afternoon, though Nov. 10 through Nov. 14 was originally listed as a district work week in the House calendar.
Johnson has repeatedly designated each week as a district work period over the course of the government shutdown and members have been told that they will get 48 hours’ notice before needing to be back in D.C. A district work period means no votes are held in the House and members are usually back in their home states.
The House was last in session Sept. 19 when the chamber passed the short-term continuing resolution.
Thune says he expects Senate to continue shutdown negotiations 'through the weekend'
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says he expects that senators are "going to be here through the weekend,” and forecast that the chamber would vote today on a bill that would pay federal workers who have been working during the shutdown.
Thune said “the pep rally” Democrats held during their party lunch yesterday “evidently changed some minds,” saying that "the wheels came off, so to speak. So, it’s up to them. I mean, like you said, we’re ready to engage when they are.”
The timing of when any votes today (or tomorrow) has not been locked in yet, and when asked if he’s concerned about the optics of not being in session during a recess during Veterans Day, Thune said: “Well, we’ll see what happens over the course the next couple of days. But I would expect that we’re going to be here through the weekend.”
Reporters surround Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the Capitol today. J. Scott Applewhite / AP
trump suggests Hungary should be given slack for buying Russian oil
trump suggested that Hungary shouldn't face any secondary sanctions for buying oil from Russia, unlike some other European countries, because he said it's "very difficult" for Hungary to "get the oil and gas from other areas."
"It’s a big country, but they don’t have sea, they don’t have the ports. And so they have a difficult problem," trump told the press before his bilateral lunch with Orbán.
trump said that many other European countries that continue to purchase Russian oil don't face those same problems.
"They don’t have those problems, and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia. And as they know, I’m very disturbed by that," he said.
trump welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House
trump just welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán inside the White House.
"Great leader," trump said about Orbán, as he pointed to the prime minister.
The two are scheduled to have a bilateral lunch.
trump greets Orban at the White House today. Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images
Nonprofits respond to trump administration's emergency request to pause full disbursement of SNAP benefits
A coalition of nonprofits has responded to the trump administration’s motion for an emergency stay of a judge's decision that the administration must fully fund food benefits today, doubling down on the urgency of the situation.
The organizations says the trump administration has been refusing "to provide full funding to provide relief for children and families who are going hungry today. Time is of the essence.”
“Defendants’ claimed desire to conserve those funds for Child Nutrition programs — programs that have $23 billion on hand and require only $3 billion per month to operate — is facially implausible,” they wrote. “Tapping Child Nutrition funds poses no realistic threat of leaving those programs underfunded.”
The response comes as we await a ruling from the 1st Circuit on the administration's request for an emergency stay.
Consumers express concern about the government shutdown's impact on economy, University of Michigan survey finds
U.S. consumer sentiment fell to a nearly three-year low, according to a new survey from the University of Michigan.
The survey also showed that consumers' view of current economic conditions fell to a record low.
"With the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy," the survey's director, Joanne Hsu, said.
"This month’s decline in sentiment was widespread throughout the population, seen across age, income and political affiliation," she added.
However, those with large stock portfolios bucked the trend, reporting an increase in economic sentiment. Despite the government shutdown, markets have remained unfazed and have repeatedly set records over the course of the 37-day shutdown.
trump pardons former Tennessee House speaker and his aide
trump pardoned former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren.
Casada, a Republican, was sentenced in September to 36 months in prison after being convicted on 17 charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Cothren received a shorter sentence.
Casada confirmed the pardon in a statement to NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville, saying: “Yes the president called me today and granted me a full pardon. I am grateful of his trust and his full confidence in my innocence through this whole ordeal.”
trump administration asks for emergency pause of judge's order on SNAP benefits
The trump administration is asking the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay — or pause — of U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s order requiring it to fully fund SNAP by today by using other funding sources.
“This Court should allow USDA to continue with the partial payment and not compel the agency to transfer billions of dollars from another safety net program with no certainty of their replenishment,” it writes.
"To the extent they require USDA to expend funds beyond the SNAP contingency fund, the Court should stay the district court’s orders of October 31 and November 6 pending appeal and grant an immediate administrative stay.”
The court has asked the plaintiffs in the SNAP lawsuit, a group of nonprofit organizations, to respond to this emergency stay motion by noon ET.
Senate to convene at noon, but votes aimed at ending shutdown unclear
The Senate is scheduled to convene at noon today and while roll call votes are expected, it's unclear whether there will be votes aimed at ending the government shutdown.
There have been discussions about a potential plan to end the shutdown in the Senate that could involve a vote on the House-passed CR for a 15th time. If that legislation receives the 60 votes needed to begin consideration of the bill, Republicans could amend it with a new short-term spending bill, as well as a package of three full-year appropriations bills.
If this plan were to proceed, it's not clear how an assurance that a vote on Obamacare fixes would be included in the agreement. And of course, even if this effort succeeds in the Senate, the House would also need to vote on it before it's sent to the president's desk.
With a Sununu running for Senate, Democrats warn against ‘sleeping on New Hampshire’
Former Sen. John E. Sununu’s comeback attempt in New Hampshire has Democrats there warning about a tougher-than-expected Senate race that could complicate the party’s effort to flip control of the chamber next year.
Sununu — a Republican who served one Senate term two decades ago and whose younger brother, Chris Sununu, was more recently the state’s popular four-term governor — jumped into the race last month.
The GOP establishment quickly rallied around Sununu in a primary that also includes Scott Brown, who served as an ambassador in trump’s first term and as a senator from neighboring Massachusetts in the early 2010s.
South Korea questions trump's claim that nuclear submarine will be built in Philly Shipyard
Building a nuclear-powered submarine in the South Korean-owned Philly Shipyard is not “realistic,” a South Korean official said, after trump said it would be built in Philadelphia.
trump, who visited South Korea last week, made the remark on social media after saying he had given the U.S. ally approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine, which would make it one of only a handful of countries to possess one.
South Korean national security adviser Wi Sung-lac told lawmakers yesterday that South Korea, one of the world’s biggest shipbuilding countries, would “move forward with a practical and cost-effective nuclear submarine program that aligns with efficiency and necessity.”
“The Virginia-class submarine is an American model that we have no need to pursue — it costs over 5 trillion won,” or $3.4 billion, he said. “Instead, we intend to develop a much more affordable submarine suited to our own operational requirements, and we plan to build it here in Korea.”
Investing in submarine facilities at the Philly Shipyard, which South Korea’s Hanwha Group bought last year for $100 million, “would not be realistic,” Wi said.
trump to host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House
trump is set to host Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House today for a bilateral lunch.
The president is welcoming his U.S. ally after the trump administration recently sanctioned Russia's two largest oil companies. Hungary is among the European countries that purchase Russian oil and trump noted last week that Orbán has asked for an exemption from sanctions on Russian oil.
"We haven't granted one, but he's a friend of mine," trump told reporters last week.
In September, trump was asked to address Orbán on his refusal to stop buying Russian oil.
“Well, he’s a friend of mine. I have not spoken to him, but I have a feeling if I did, he might stop, and I think I’ll be doing that," he said at the time.
Rep. Elise Stefanik launches run for New York governor
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik is launching a run for governor in New York, blaming Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for the state’s high cost of living and tying the governor to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Stefanik’s 2½-minute launch video focuses largely on affordability. And while Stefanik is a staunch ally of trump, her campaign video does not make any references to the president.
“There’s no question: New York is facing an affordability crisis,” a narrator says in Stefanik’s launch video, which also features commentators calling Hochul the “worst governor in America.”
What to know about the nationwide FAA-mandated flight reductions
A routine journey to the skies may result in long lines and a change of plans as airlines abide by a Federal Aviation Administration order to cut flights by 4% in high traffic airports starting today.
The cuts are building up to a 10% reduction in capacity at 40 locations, designed to ease pressure points and address fatigue among air traffic controllers as the government shutdown drags on.