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josh hawley
Josh Hawley Postures as SNAP Defender Months After Voting to Slash Food Aid for Millions
The Missouri Republican introduced a bill to protect SNAP benefits during the government shutdown after supporting a budget package that contains the largest food aid cuts in US history.
Oct 23, 2025
Republican US Sen. Josh Hawley is once again posing as the defender of a program he recently voted to cut.
On Wednesday, the Missouri senator introduced legislation that would fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the duration of the government shutdown as families across the country brace for benefit disruptions and cuts beginning as soon as November 1, potentially impacting more than 40 million people.
"Our kids deserve to eat," Hawley said in a statement, blaming Democrats for the shutdown even as his party refuses to support an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, sending insurance premiums soaring.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters this week that Democrats "want Americans to have healthcare and food."
"The Republicans, evidently, don't care whether they have either," Warren added.
Hawley's statement on the new legislation did not mention his support for President Donald Trump's signature budget package, which included the largest SNAP cuts in US history, affecting millions across the nation—including many children.
The looming SNAP benefit cuts due to the government shutdown are set to compound the impacts of food aid cuts from the Trump-GOP budget law. The Trump administration is currently pressuring states to swiftly implement the law's draconian SNAP changes, including more expansive work requirements.
Hawley's new bill, titled the Keep SNAP Funded Act, marks the second time this year that the Missouri Republican has come to the defense of a program that he has helped attack. Just two weeks after helping pass the Trump-GOP budget package, which contains around $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, Hawley unveiled legislation aimed at repealing some of those cuts.
The bill went nowhere in the Republican-controlled Senate.
It's unclear whether Hawley's SNAP legislation will suffer the same fate. The Republican senator said if GOP leaders don't agree to bring it up for a vote, he intends to try to pass it via unanimous consent.
Dozens of states have said they have begun sending out notices informing SNAP recipients that they won't receive benefits next month if the shutdown continues, and food pantries across the nation are preparing for a surge in demand.
Legislation like Hawley's isn't necessary to ensure that SNAP recipients continue receiving at least partial benefits as the shutdown drags on, experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) stressed earlier this week.
"Nearly two-thirds of the funds needed for a full month of benefits are available in SNAP's contingency fund and must be used when regular funding for SNAP runs short," wrote CBPP's Dottie Rosenbaum and Katie Bergh. "The administration must release those funds immediately as SNAP law requires, to ensure that families can put food on the table next month."
As of this writing, the Trump administration has made no indication it plans to release those funds.
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Senate Advances Bill Banning Politicians From Stock Trading—While Giving Trump a Big Carveout
"Voters have a right to know that their elected representatives are acting in the public's best interest and are not motivated by their personal financial interests," said the general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center.
Jul 30, 2025
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday narrowly voted in favor of advancing a bill that bars politicians at the federal level from trading stocks—with one highly notable exception.
As reported by Politico, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined with all Democrats on the committee to advance a bill to ban stock trading by elected officials. However, to get Hawley's vote, Democrats had to agree to create a carveout for U.S. President Donald Trump and to apply the stock-trading ban only to future presidents.
Business Insider reported that, as written, the legislation "would ban members of members of Congress, the president, and the vice president from buying stocks immediately upon enactment, and would block them from selling stocks beginning 90 days after that."
"It would then require lawmakers to divest entirely from their stock holdings at the beginning of their next term, and it would require the president and vice president to do so beginning in 2029—after President Donald Trump's current term," the outlet explained.
Hawley took heat from fellow Republicans on the committee for advancing the legislation, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who accused his Missouri colleague of demonizing the wealthy.
"I don't know when in this country it became a negative to make money," said Scott. "How many of you don’t want to make money? Anybody want to be poor?"
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said that she wished that the law didn't have a carveout for Trump, but nonetheless supported advancing the bill and she described herself as "willing to make the good work instead of waiting for the perfect."
The bill's advancement out of committee earned plaudits from some government reform advocates. Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, encouraged the full U.S. Senate to take up a vote on the package while also explaining the proposed legislation's importance.
"Members of Congress frequently have access to nonpublic information about economic and business trends and are in a position of power to influence those trends," he said. "That is why the American public—Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike—has called for this type of legislation ever since a series of insider trading scandals erupted over the last several years."
Kedric Payne, the vice president and general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), similarly praised the bill's advancement while also explaining why current transparency rules were no longer adequate.
"To prevent corruption and conflicts of interest, CLC has long called on Congress to update the STOCK Act, which merely requires members to disclose their transactions, and fully ban stock trading by sitting legislators," said Payne. "In the absence of these stronger rules, we've seen congressional stock trading proliferate. This has led to repeated examples of ethical violations and questionable financial activity, including during global health emergencies and times of great economic uncertainty."
Payne further emphasized that "voters have a right to know that their elected representatives are acting in the public's best interest and are not motivated by their personal financial interests."
The legislation advanced by Hawley and the Democrats was originally named after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the former speaker whose highly profitable stock trades have come under scrutiny in recent years.
Even though the bill has now made its way out of committee, it still faces an uncertain future in the full U.S. Senate where Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority and where Democrats would need to win over some additional Republican converts on top of Hawley. And even should it pass the Senate, it's uncertain whether the legislation would be able to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
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'He Had Power to Stop This': GOP's Hawley Warns of Looming Healthcare Disaster After Enabling It
"If we don't [extend the tax credits], the cost of insurance is just going to explode... for families, working people across the nation," said Sen. Josh Hawley during an event hosted by Axios.
Jul 23, 2025
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on Wednesday took some flack from critics after he warned about big spikes in Americans' insurance premiums that he personally had the power to stop just weeks ago.
During an event hosted by Axios, Hawley was asked about potentially voting to extend some of the enhanced tax credits to help Americans pay the cost of their health insurance that were passed by Democrats during former President Joe Biden's term in office.
"If we don't [extend the tax credits], the cost of insurance is just going to explode... for families, working people across the nation," Hawley said. "I mean, already we're seeing premium increases with are just, which are unbelievable. We're looking at anything from 10% to 30% increases in the cost of health insurance."
"These subsidies allow folks to pay less than 10% of their income—which is still a lot, by the way—for health insurance," the senator added. "If we don't do something about that, we could see people paying double what they're paying now. I just don't know how you can afford it, I don't know how working people can afford it."
Q: Some of the ACA tax credits are set to expire at the end of the year. How important is it for Republicans to stop that from happening?
HAWLEY: Well, if we don't, the cost of insurance is just going to explode. Explode for families, working people. Already the premium… pic.twitter.com/wg5Z8cxDsH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2025
Some critics were quick to point out that Hawley could have insisted on an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits—which are set to expire at the end of the year—as a necessary condition for voting in favor of the massive budget reconciliation package that barely passed the U.S. Senate and required Vice President J.D. Vance to serve as a tie-breaking vote.
During the run up to voting on the bill, Hawley complained about the roughly $1 trillion in cuts it contained to Medicaid over the span of a decade, but wound up voting for it regardless.
"Josh Hawley is exhibit #1 of what it means to have a cult leader in charge," wrote Democratic California State Sen. Scott Wiener on the social media platform X. "He voted to blow up Medicaid and ACA—after vocally saying he was opposed to doing so—and now he's complaining about it. He had power to stop this disaster. He chose not to because the leader insisted."
"If some aspect of a bill is going to devastate constituents financially, how can a responsible representative vote it it?" asked longtime New York Times media reporter Bill Carter. "Hawley wants to say: 'Look how hard I'm fighting for you, after I sold you out.'"
Paul Waldman, a columnist for MSNBC and The Daily Beast, mused about how poorly statements such as Hawley's would play in a future run for the presidency.
"Josh Hawley is rolling out his compelling 2028 persona, Guy Who Feels Your Pain Now That The Bills He Voted For Made Your Life Miserable," he wrote on social media platform Bluesky.
Missouri-based progressive activist Jess Piper explained that Hawley's decision to vote for the GOP budget bill was going to hurt her personally.
"He's my Senator," she said. "He's the reason I will lose my health insurance."
KFF and the Peterson Center on Healthcare last week released a study projecting that ACA marketplace premiums will go up so much if the tax credits aren't extended that millions of Americans will simply opt out of having health insurance.
"If Congress takes no action to renew these enhanced tax credits, enhanced subsidies will expire at the end of 2025, which will cause premium payments for subsidized enrollees to increase by over 75% starting in January 2026," the study stated. "Insurers expect a large share of enrollees to leave the market, and that those enrollees will be healthier on average, thus leaving the risk pool sicker on average."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this week that more than four million people could lose health insurance over the next decade if lawmakers don’t extend the ACA tax credits.
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