U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne asked north Texans if they’re feeling the shutdown – and how

DALLAS — If the government shutdown lasts through election day, Tuesday, November 4, it would be the longest in history at 35 days.

We first spoke to Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, R-24th District, one day after the shutdown started. So, we decided to check back in with her four weeks later.

She’s surprised it’s lasted this long.

“When I was first asked about it, I was on an interview, like one minute after it started, and somebody asked how long I was assuming it was going to last. My odds were five to seven days because I figured what was going to happen was you were going to see Russ Vought (director of Office of Management and Budget, OMB) come out with a list of programs and agencies that were going to get shut down. That has not happened,” the Congresswoman told us on Inside Texas Politics.

Now several weeks into the shutdown, Congresswoman Van Duyne and her team recently sent out a survey to gauge the shutdown’s impact. She tells us that around 2,600 people responded.

“55% said they weren’t impacted by the shutdown. 26% said they were. That’s almost a quarter of all North Texas folks that responded to the survey. And 19% had mixed messages,” the Republican said. “Some of the people who were impacted by it, it could have been flight delays. It could be people who are trying to get their passport, people who are waiting on SBA loans.”

The government shut down on October 1 after funding lapsed.

House Republicans argue that they passed what’s known as a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) with no GOP policy priorities included. That temporary funding measure would have kept the government open until November 21, giving lawmakers more time to hammer out a budget deal, in theory at least.

Democrats, on the other hand, say they’re fighting to save Obamacare tax subsidies known as “enhanced premium tax credits,” which have lowered the cost of insurance premiums obtained through the exchange. They have also dramatically increased enrollment. These are set to expire at the end of the year.

Republicans say open the government and then we’ll negotiate. But Democrats don’t think that promise will be kept.

“If you really want to talk about healthcare, come back to the table. Stop holding the entire country hostage. Come back to the table and let’s talk about healthcare. But let’s also acknowledge the fact that this has been, the ACA was a complete and utter disaster,” Van Duyne relayed.

And now, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will end on November 1 as funding runs out. The program has an emergency fund of around $5 billion, but the Trump Administration says it cannot legally tap into those funds. And it wouldn’t even cover the entire cost of the program, which is around $8 billion per month.

But two different federal judges will soon rule whether the Administration must use the funds to partially restore SNAP benefits. But even if those judges do say benefits cannot stop, there would be a delay in getting that assistance to those who need it as the process of restoring the funds could take up to a couple of weeks.

Those rulings are expected at any time.

Congresswoman Van Duyne says the emergency fund was not set up for what she calls a “planned” government shutdown, which she blames on Democrats.

“I think the legal opinion was that you can’t just tap into it, that the emergency funds are there for emergencies. I was part of the first Trump Administration. I worked for Secretary Carson at HUD when Hurricane Harvey happened. Those are the types of emergencies that this fund is set aside for,” she explained. “If they are concerned about the SNAP beneficiaries in their district, call your Senators, tell them to do the right thing, and tell them to vote on opening up the government.”