Government shutdown updates: Judge lays out path for SNAP benefits

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded Republicans “sit-down and negotiate with us” to reopen the government and address the health care crisis.

“Look, on November 1st, people in more than 30 states are going to be aghast, aghast when they see their bills, and they're going to cry out, and I believe there will be increased pressure on Republicans to negotiate with us,” Schumer said when asked about his strategy to reopen the government.

Asked about the American Federation of Government Workers’ call on lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution to turn the lights back on in D.C., Schumer said “We can do both and we need to do both -- have federal workers get paid and negotiate a way to resolve the Americans’ pain in the health care crisis.”

Schumer said Senate Democrats will introduce a bill to extend funding for SNAP and WIC to “make sure no child goes hungry.”

“Trump's not even in the United States, and Senate Republicans are running exactly the same failed play that brought America to its knees,” he said. “Americans are on the brink of a health care crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes.”

Schumer said Republicans are “doing nothing. So, we're on the precipice of a historic crisis, and Republicans don't even want to talk to us. Trump, not even in the U.S.,” he said.

He said Trump’s “main priority” is his new White House ballroom.

“Can you believe that? You can’t make this stuff up when people are suffering. What kind of president is this?” he added.

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller

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.