Government shutdown updates: Judge lays out path for SNAP benefits

Vice President JD Vance met with Republican senators behind closed doors for about 40 minutes. The shutdown was a subject of discussion but it does not seem that any sort of strategy change was pitched.

"The message inside, and I think there's great unity within the Republican conference about this, is we've got to be able to open up the government. The government needs to be open. We just need Democrats to actually take it up and vote with us," Vance said.

Vance said he believes that the administration can continue to pay the troops this Friday.

"Yes, we believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday. Unfortunately, we're not gonna be able to pay everybody, because we've been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats. This is one of the reasons why you've seen some layoffs in the federal workforce. We do think that we can continue paying the troops, at least for now, but we've got food stamp benefits that are set to run out in a week. We're trying to keep as much open as possible. We just need the Democrats to actually help us out," he said.

On SNAP, set to run out of funding on Nov. 1, Vance was asked why the administration wouldn't dip into contingency funds to pay for the program.

"We're trying to keep as much open as possible, and we're exploring all options. There are limitations on all these funds," Vance said. "There are limitations on how you can use them."

"We are trying as much as possible to ensure that critical food benefits get paid, that our military gets paid. ... If the Democrats just opened up the government, then we wouldn't have to play this game where we're trying to find, you know, we're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with the budget, because we have such limited numbers to spread around very widely," the vice president added.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

Vice President JD Vance arrived on Capitol Hill just after 1 p.m. Eastern Time to join Senate Republicans at a closed-door lunch.

He did not respond to shouted questions about the shutdown and only said "talk to you guys soon" as he entered.

He's talking with lawmakers after a 13th failed vote in the Senate to advance the Republicans' clean funding bill that would reopen the government until Nov. 21.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

On Tuesday, more than two dozen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts suing the Trump administration over the impending loss of SNAP benefits amid the government shutdown.

About 42 million Americans are poised to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits when federal funding comes to a halt on Nov. 1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said it would not use emergency funds to give a lifeline to program funding. The states are seeking to have the court order USDA to use all available funds to keep SNAP benefits funded in November.

"Suspending SNAP benefits in these circumstances is both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act," the lawsuit reads. "USDA's suspension of SNAP benefits is irreparably harming Plaintiff States -- a harm that increases every day SNAP benefits are delayed."

The states suing the administration are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin as well as the District of Columbia.

The Senate on Tuesday took a 13th try on the GOP's clean funding bill that would have reopened the federal government until Nov. 21.

Again, it failed to pass by a vote of 54-45. It needed 60 votes to advance. No lawmaker changed their position from the previous votes.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin