Shutdown Hits Day 29 With Focus on the Needy: Starting Line

Control Over Wins and Losses

Those in uniform? Yes. Your hungry neighbors? No. A brutal reality facing decision-makers is that even with no appropriations for 29 days now, federal money can be spent — and every dollar tells those impacted where they stand.

Vice President JD Vance says the White House believes it can pay troops this Friday. If he’s right, that will subtract a significant chunk of the federal workers from the missed-paycheck cohort. It also promises to focus more attention on the have-nots such as the 41 million Americans who rely on government assistance to eat.

Maeve Sheehey, Lillianna Byington, and Skye Witley report that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which people generally refer to as the food stamp program, is becoming a focus of the partisan staredown on Capitol Hill.

The Agriculture Department previously said it lacks legal authority to distribute billions from a nutrition benefit reserve fund.

“I am the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, and I promise you that there is funding available to provide SNAP benefits beyond Nov. 1,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

A shutdown plan USDA published, then deleted, acknowledged congressional intent to keep the program running during a federal funding lapse but said the reserve fund was only available if that occurred “in the middle of the fiscal year.”

As for what Vance said about paying the military, Jack Fitzpatrick captured the politics of the moment in a quote from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham said he wasn’t sure about the legal ins and outs but said, “I’d love for somebody to sue that you can’t pay the troops. Good luck with that. That’d be the Scrooge Society.”

BGOV subscribers, you can dig into more of the details in this morning’s Congress Tracker and BGOV Budget.

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From Workmate to Watchdog

Senators today have a chance to quiz John Walk about what to expect if they allow him to go from workplace colleague to independent investigator in charge of scrutinizing the way the Trump administration handles billions of tax dollars.

Walk, who’s up for the post of Agriculture Department inspector general, is to appear before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. He’s been on the USDA payroll since the first Trump administration, most recently as senior adviser to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

And he’s not the only IG nominee chosen while working in a politically appointed role, Skye Witley reports. Cheryl Mason, who’s served as VA IG since July, faced questions about her work as a senior adviser to Secretary Doug Collins during the first seven months of President Donald Trump’s second term. Senators also pressed Small Business Administration IG nominee William Kirk — who’s working as the chief of staff for the Education Department’s general counsel office.

Federal law requires IG picks to be chosen “without regard to political affiliation,” so they can independently root out waste, fraud, and abuse. Read More

‘They Should Hit Back’

Trump defended Israel’s strikes against members of Hamas and said he thinks that the peace deal he brokered earlier this month will hold despite rogue elements of the group attacking Israeli soldiers.

“The Israelis hit back, and they should hit back,” Trump told reporters. Read More

Israel said it’s re-enforcing a ceasefire in Gaza after conducting a series of air strikes overnight. A collapse of the truce would be a major blow for Trump, who has taken credit for the deal and boasted that it will end hundreds of years of conflict in the region. Read More

Interest Rate Vote

Federal Reserve officials are on track to cut the benchmark interest rate a little more today.

Businesses, investors, economists, and people who might want to borrow money sometime soon will be listening for clues about what’s next in Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments after the vote.

Analysts expect Powell to avoid offering clear guidance on what to expect at upcoming meetings. The lack of official economic data — due to the ongoing government shutdown — will only make him more cautious, reports Maria Eloisa Capurro.

There won’t be new forecasts or rate projections, at this meeting. Read More

Final Stop: South Korea

The grand finale of Trump’s Asia trip began today, with Trump announcing he reached a trade deal with South Korea as he attended a dinner hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. Korean officials have worked hard to court the Trump administration, including a recent weekend of meetings that brought Seoul’s top tycoons to a golf event with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Tomorrow is Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

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When You Know a Guy

Folks at a big Florida lobbying firm couldn’t help but notice all the people from their state heading north to work in the Trump administration. Kate Ackley reports that the advocates followed, and it’s been a lucrative expansion.

The Southern Group’s lobbying revenue surged nearly 450% between the first quarter of the year and the third quarter, to $1.8 million from $323,000.

You may recognize the name of one of the advocacy operation’s founding partners: Daniel Diaz-Balart, the son of the late Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and nephew of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). Read More

Before You Go

Retribution: The Trump administration is cutting 13 current or planned routes by Mexican carriers into the US. The reason? Alleged noncompliance with a 2015 air transport agreement, Allyson Versprille reports. Read More

Repercussion: Gregory Bovino, a top US Border Patrol official, must report in person daily to a federal judge, Megan Crepeau reports. Judge Sara Ellis initiated the requirement following repeated reports that immigration agents violated guidelines around the use of force against demonstrators, including tear gas deployed not far from a planned children’s Halloween parade.Read More

Disqualified: Though a federal judge ruled Bill Essayli has been unlawfully serving as acting US attorney, indictments he signed appear to be unaffected because they have the signatures of other prosecutors, Maia Spoto reports. Read More

Pipeline: Justice Brett Kavanaugh has emerged as a major source of judicial nominees in the second Trump administration, with the president repeatedly looking to the justice’s former clerks to fill influential appellate court vacancies, Jordan Fischer reports. Read More

Ousted: The White House fired all six members of an independent federal agency that had expected to review some of Trump’s construction projects, including his planned triumphal arch and White House ballroom, the Washington Post reports.

Not Redistricting: Maryland’s state Senate president refused to go along with calls from top Democrats, including the governor, to redraw the state’s congressional districts to help the party in next year’s midterm elections, the Post reports.

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To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Rizzo in Washington at krizzo@bgov.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rachel Leven at rleven@bloombergindustry.com; Herb Jackson at hjackson@bloombergindustry.com

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