Federal funding for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps, runs out on Saturday due to the government shutdown. The funding cut-off will hit illegal immigrants hard. The Center’s 2023 analysis of government survey data shows households headed by illegal immigrants make extensive use of the welfare system, particularly food assistance programs.
Among our prior findings:Of households headed by illegal immigrants, CIS estimated that 59 percent use one or more welfare programs — cash, food assistance, Medicaid, or housing. Illegal immigrant households have especially high use of food programs, with 48 percent enrolled in one or more of these programs — SNAP, WIC, or school lunch/breakfast. In particular, our analysis found that 17 percent of illegal immigrant households used SNAP. In addition to food programs, 18 percent of illegal immigrant households were enrolled in one of the cash programs; 4 percent were using a housing program; and 39 percent used Medicaid. Illegal immigrants often receive welfare on behalf of U.S.-born children, and illegal immigrant children can receive school lunch/breakfast and WIC directly. Some states provide Medicaid to illegal immigrants, and a few offer SNAP. Several million illegal immigrants also have been issued Social Security numbers allowing them to receive cash payments from the earned income tax credit if they work. Many immigrants have modest levels of education and low incomes, so suspension of WIC and SNAP will impact a large share of this population. But this situation raises important policy questions, including whether it makes sense to have an immigration system that allows in so many people who turn to taxpayers to support their children
Senators left Washington Thursday after another week of failing to reopen the government—ensuring that the federal government shutdown will go on for at least 34 days—one day short of the record.
By the time senators get back on Monday, there will be a mere 18 days left on the funding extension that Democrats have continually rejected. It was originally meant to provide seven weeks for appropriators in both chambers to hammer out funding agreements.
And the worst is yet to come. On Nov. 1, per announcements from the United States Department of Agriculture, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will be cut off, the first ever lapse of its kind for the food stamp program, which was formed in 1939.
Amid this partisan gridlock, it is unclear how Congress plans to get the government open. But once the government is open, it’s just as unclear how Congress will continue to fund the government for the fiscal year. The choices at Congress’ disposal are the continuing resolution and the appropriations process.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., met with top Republican appropriator Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Thursday, telling reporters afterward that Republicans will need a longer-lasting continuing resolution to fund the government in order to buy time for appropriations.
“We’re going to need a longer date if we’re going to do [appropriations] bills,” Thune told reporters. Thune has warned of the risk of having to pass a long-term CR if Democrats do not work with Republicans.
Nevertheless, some appropriators in the House remain optimistic and say that if they end up needing a CR, it will not have to be long-term. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., for instance, wants to only have a short-term continuing resolution, insisting “There’s no reason why this needs to go much beyond the calendar year, if we started now."
On Thursday, Rep. Riley Moore,R-W.Va., a freshman member of the House Appropriations Committee, told The Daily Signal he was bullish on the process, and that negotiations have continued throughout the shutdown.
“If the Democrats want to step back from the abyss and actually reopen the government and pass that CR, we are ready to go forward and pass these appropriations bills,” Moore told The Daily Signal. “And we got an anchor for all of them to go through the minibus, probably [a] package, on all of them. So, whenever the Democrats want to open back up, we’re ready to go.”
A minibus is a handful of funding bills that Congress votes on as a package. Republican leadership had intended to pass bills funding military construction and veteran affairs, agriculture, and the legislative branch in a package to be negotiated by both chambers.
In the Senate, Republicans have already attempted to move forward with additional appropriations bills during the shutdown, but with no success.
A defense funding bill, for example, failed in mid-October when all but three Senate Democrats voted against advancing it. Part of the difficulty is Democrats’ insistence on receiving health care concessions before the government can reopen.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Top Democrat appropriator Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday that she will not assist with passing appropriations bills until Republicans negotiate with Democrats.
“I’d love to see appropriations move, but the fact is, until the leaders meet and talk about getting a bipartisan CR and health care, we’re not going to be able to move.”
Murray’s remarks point to a major philosophical divide between Republican and Democrat leadership. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has repeatedly rejected the idea of the government being funded by backroom deals rather than by the larger body.
“That’s not how this works. I don’t operate that way,” Johnson said in a recent interview when asked about Democrats’ request for a meeting of leaders. “When I became speaker, I vowed to my colleagues that I would return to regular order,I would decentralize the speaker’s office, and it would not be a top-down, hoisted-upon-the-membership kind of program anymore. This is a member-driven, consensus-driven operation.”
What is more, Speaker Johnson is also warning that inserting Democrat demands into any spending agreement would not even be possible without buy-in from all members. The House has a large conservative faction opposed to the extension of COVID-19-era subsidies that Democrats are demanding.
The Founders “did not want four people to go into a backroom and make a deal,” Johnson said. “By the way, I couldn’t do that on something as complicated as extension of Obamacare COVID subsidies because we have to find the consensus. There’s a hundred different ideas on how to improve that.”
What is at stake in this shutdown is nothing less than the future of the appropriations process, which Republican leaders have said they want to resurrect after years of leadership-crafted funding deals.
Some in the House, however, are growing more skeptical of the usefulness of attempting to achieve bipartisan negotiations with Democrats.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, for instance, is advocating a long-term continuing resolution to go through 2026, arguing that it would keep spending flat—a victory in Washington—and would leave room for further cuts to federal largesse.
Multiple members of the House Freedom Caucus have previously entertained this idea, which would be a change in direction for a Republican conference that has been attempting to resurrect the regular order appropriations process.
Thousands of men living with hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (HSPC) in England and Wales will gain access to abiraterone – both Johnson & Johnson's Zytiga brand and generics – under new guidance from reimbursement authority NICE.
Final draft guidance on NHS use of the drug marks a "significant shift" from NICE's 2021 decision on the drug as a first-line treatment for newly diagnosed, advanced HSPC in combination with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and prednisolone or prednisone.
That was heavily criticised by cancer specialists as it created a disparity in access within Great Britain. Patients in Scotland have been able to get access to abiraterone for this indication since 2020, but until now, the drug was not an option for those in England and Wales.
"Our positive recommendation addresses this inconsistency, expanding access to a clinically effective medicine with as many as 4,000 people now able to benefit from this additional treatment option," said NICE in a statement.
The agency said that in 2021, abiraterone did not represent value for money for the NHS. However, with prices now much reduced, thanks to generics reaching the market, the cost-effectiveness calculation has shifted in favour of access.
It's the second new guidance from NICE for men with this form of prostate cancer in around a week, coming after Bayer's Nubeqa (darolutamide) was also recommended for use in combination with ADT if docetaxel, a chemotherapy agent, is not suitable.
Big cost savings predicted
NICE said that it expects the NHS can save millions of pounds a year through greater use of the generic version of abiraterone rather than using Astellas' Xtandi (enzalutamide) and J&J's Erleada (apalutamide), currently the two other drugs recommended in this setting.
The savings can be reinvested in "breakthrough treatments and care improvements," it added.
"By seizing the opportunity of generic medicines that deliver better value, we're making sure thousands of men with prostate cancer can now access this vital treatment – delivering better care while also driving the smarter spending our NHS desperately needs," commented Ashley Dalton, the UK's Minister for Public Health and Prevention.
Prostate Cancer UK also welcomed the decision, but said it "will not save or extend lives as these men already had access to equally effective treatments" as "evidence shows abiraterone must be prescribed earlier for men with high-risk but non-metastatic disease – when it can halve their] risk of death."
The charity's assistant director of health improvement, Amy Rylance, said that the NHS has so far failed to act to approve abiraterone for earlier-stage patients despite the evidence for its benefits.
For every week this goes on, another 13 men will die as a result," she added. "With this approval, the NHS has shown it can cut through the red tape and make effective, affordable treatments available when it chooses to. It must now do the same to help these men, who simply cannot afford to wait any longer."
