Letters from an American - October 29, 2025

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

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October 29th, 2025. Today is the 29th day of the government shutdown and the House of Representatives is still on break as House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, continues to try to force the Senate to pass the House measure to fund the government without negotiating over the Democrats' demand for the extension of the premium tax credit without which health care premiums will skyrocket yesterday air traffic controllers received their first zero paycheck for weeks flights have been delayed across the country as air traffic controllers call in sick also across the country states are bracing for food insecurity among the 42 million americans who depend on supplemental nutrition assistance program

or SNAP benefits when those payments don't go out on time on November 1st. The administration maintains it cannot distribute the $6 billion the United States Department of Agriculture or USDA holds in reserve to cover for November 1st. Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported on Monday that even some Senate Republicans want to fund SNAP in a standalone bill. But yesterday, House Speaker Johnson, dismissed Democrats' attempts to pass stand-alone measures to fund federal workers and SNAP, calling them a waste of time. Also yesterday, governors and attorneys general from 25 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia sued the USDA and Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rawlins, the Office of Management and Budget, along with its Director Russell vote,

and the United States itself over the government's refusal to use the USDA's reserves to fund SNAP. The lawsuit argues that Congress has mandated SNAP payments and has made appropriations for them, including the $6 billion the USDA holds in reserve. Another USDA fund has more than $23 billion in it. The USDA took money from it earlier in the shutdown to fund another nutrition program, the women, infants and children, or WIC program. The lawsuit notes that the USDA itself initially said it could use reserve funds. The decision saying it cannot is recent. The lawsuit notes that the USDA's claim that the SNAP contingency funds cannot be used to fund SNAP benefits during an appropriation lapse is contrary to the plain text of the congressional

appropriations law, which states that the reserves are for use in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 today ignoring Johnson's insistence that he would not recall the House to debate standalone funding for SNAP and WIC Democrats led by Senator Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico introduced a measure to fund both the loss of SNAP benefits will hit not only the 42 million Americans who depend on them, but also the stores that accept electronic benefit transfer or EBT cards. At the same time, the cost of health insurance premiums is soaring because of the expiration of

the premium tax credits. Medical debt is central to throwing families into bankruptcy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, which under President Joe Biden tried to remove medical debt from credit reports, yesterday published a rule to make sure states cannot stop companies from including such debt on credit reports. The acting director of the CFPB is Russell Vote. So, just as the government stops addressing food insecurity and as health care costs skyrocket, the administration permits credit reporting agencies to put medical debt back onto people's credit scores, even if state laws say they can't. This is happening as higher costs, economic uncertainty, and increased use of AI mean hiring is slow, and jobs are disappearing across the economy. Lindsay Alice, Owen Tucker

Smith, and Allison Poll of the Wall Street Journal reported last night on layoffs at Amazon, UPS, Target, Rivian, Moulson Coors, Booz Allen Hamilton, and General Mose, Moves, that together mean the loss of tens of thousands of white-collar jobs. The Republicans' budget reconciliation bill of July, the law they call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cut more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid and made dramatic changes to SNAP, including cuts of $187 billion from SNAP over 10 years.

Crucially, the Republicans designed those cuts to go into effect to effect after the 2026 midterm elections. But their refusal to extend the premium tax credits and end the government shutdown has given Americans an early taste of what those changes will mean. Despite the growing crisis in the US, President Donald J. Trump broke precedent

to leave the country during the shutdown. His erratic behavior on that trip has drawn attention. On October 27th, Greta Bjornson of people noted that Trump seemed to be referring to a dementia screening when he boasted on Air Force One that he got a perfect score on an IQ test that required him to identify a tiger, an elephant, a giraffe. Physicians have been giving Trump the test

since at least 2018. In Japan, during a welcome ceremony on October 28th, Trump appealed. appeared to wander, leaving Japanese Prime Minister Sinai to Akiichi behind. While Trump is out of the country, the White House has made dramatic changes to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Sasha Rogelberg of Fortune reported last week that law enforcement agents from ICE are still getting their paychecks, including overtime, thanks to the injection of an extra $75 billion into

ICE's budget from July's budget reconciliation bill. Nonetheless, ICE is claiming the shutdown means it no longer has any legal obligation to permit congressional oversight visits to its detention facilities. On October 24th, Hamid Ali Aziz and Tyler Pager of the New York Times reported that the White House was frustrated that deportations are not moving quickly enough to meet what deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller has said is the target of a million deportations in Trump's first year. On October 27th, Anna G.R. Itelli of the Washington Examiner broke the story that the White House was reassigning ice field officers and replacing them with officers from Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP. Greg Wainer and Bill Malugian of Fox News reported that the shift

will affect at least eight cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Portland, Philadelphia, Al Paso, and New Orleans. They reported that the changes reflect a split within the Department of Homeland Security. In one camp, so-called border czar Tom Holman and ICE director Todd Lyons have focused on arresting undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or who have final deportation orders. The other includes Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem, special government employee Corey Lewandowski, who advises Noem, and Greg Bovino, a Border Patrol sector chief who has been overseeing the agency's operations in Los Angeles and Chicago. One senior official told Wainer and Malugian, ICE is arresting criminal aliens. They, Border Patrol, are hitting home depots and

car washes. A Border Patrol agent, though, told the journalists, what did everyone think mass deportations meant? Only the worst? Tom Homan has said it himself. Anyone in the U.S. illegally is on the table. Bovino has been the official face of CBP's violence. On October 6th, journalists and protesters in the Chicago area sued the Trump administration for a pattern of extreme brutality, designed to to silence the press and civilians. On October 9th, 2025, U.S. District Judge Sarah Ellis issued a temporary restraining order, or TRO, to restrict federal officers' use of flashbang grenades,

tear gas, pepper spray, and other less lethal weapons and tactics against journalists, peaceful protesters, and religious leaders in and around Chicago. On September 16th, after video emerged of agents throwing tear gas canisters into crowds and charging protesters, Ellis required officers to wear body cameras. Last Thursday, a video showed Bovino throwing what seemed to be a tear gas canister at protesters without warning, and plaintiffs called Ellis's attention to it, arguing that his actions violated the TRO. Immigration officers claimed a mob of

hostile and violent rioters had thrown a rocket Bovino and hit him in the head, although none of the videos from the protest show such an event. On Friday, Ellis ordered Bovino to appear in court on October 28th, yesterday. Michelle Gallardo, Mark Rivera and Kate Cowgaren of ABC eyewitness news in Chicago shared the Department of Homeland Securities boast that Bovino would correct Judge Ellis of her deep misconceptions about what it calls Operation Midway Blitz. Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on the U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous, he said.

Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party. for any administration to treat them that way erodes our national security and flies in the face of Congress's constitutional obligation to oversee matters of war and peace letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson it was produced at Soundscape Productions dead in Massachusetts

Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.