Clergy members decry government shutdown, pause of federal aid

Clergy members called on Congress to reopen the government, citing negative effects on low-income people.

Those affected by the shutdown, such as federal food aid recipients and clergy members who represent them, were invited to speak at a news conference on Thursday, day 30 of the government shutdown.

Rev. Barber, a Protestant minister and president of North Carolina’s Repairers of the Breach, called on Congress to “stop all this partisan fighting and get down to the business of the people.”

“Open this government so that you can open up good news to the poor, and so that you can establish justice because anything less is morally indefensible, economically insane and constitutionally inconsistent,” he said.

The House passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded and operational, which Senate Democrats defeated in 14 different votes. Democrats want to force Republicans to negotiate on extending enhanced COVID-era subsidies for Obamacare, set to expire at the end of the year.

Republicans have said they will negotiate once the government is funded.

People who rely on federal food aid, Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies spoke at the ​D​emocrats’ news conference, sharing how the government shutdown is affecting their livelihood.

​T​he federal ​f​unding will run out Saturday for food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ​or SNAP.

Rep. Steven Horsford, Nevada Democrat, said the government shutdown is not a partisan moment.

“Putting food on the table isn’t about right versus left. It’s about right versus wrong,” he said.

Mr. Horsford said health care cuts and the federal food aid cliff, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments set to stop Saturday when money runs out, are a “moral reckoning for our country.” He urged Republican colleagues to head it off.

Mr. Barber said something is wrong when one prays for the government to reopen while Congress passes policies that prey on “the very people that faith tells us ought to be the central concern of government and policies, and not the last.”