What we're covering
• Day 28 of shutdown: Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ stopgap funding bill from advancing as both parties remain firm in their positions. Vice President JD Vance is expected to discuss the shutdown with GOP senators today as Senate Democrats insist the impasse won’t end until President Donald Trump gets involved.
• Travel impacts: The Federal Aviation Administration is reporting staffing shortages and flight delays as air traffic controllers missed their first full paycheck since the shutdown began.
• Trump’s Asia trip: Meanwhile, Trump and Japan’s conservative new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, traded praise and signed a framework on securing the supply of critical minerals and rare earths. Trump will be in South Korea next ahead of his anticipated meeting with China’s Xi Jinping.
• Immigration hearing: Back in the US, one of the most polarizing figures of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement faced a hearing today over his response to Chicago protesters.
Speaker Johnson insists Trump White House isn't able to fund SNAP
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday insisted that Republicans want to fund food stamp benefits, which are at risk amid the government shutdown, but that the Trump administration is hamstrung.
President Donald Trump has repurposed federal funds to pay the US military and tapped into tariff funds to keep afloat a federal food assistance program for pregnant women, new moms and young children known as WIC.
Asked whether the White House should find funding for food stamp benefits or SNAP, Johnson told reporters that the White House “certainly tried.”
“But they did the legal research, they could not find the 1930s-era statute to bootstrap that one. The contingency fund was approved by Congress. And when the Democrats voted against the [clean resolution], they voted against the ability of us to use that money,” Johnson said during a press conference on Capitol Hill.
Johnson, however, argued that funding for the SNAP benefits is out of the hands of the Trump administration and of Congress.
“But when you’re out of resources, they go all the way up, and it’s out of their hands. It’s out of our hands, and that’s why we’re so frustrated,” he said.
Johnson says there’s "no legal precedent" for voiding presidential actions signed with autopen
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged there is “no legal precedent” for whether a president’s executive actions signed with an autopen could be voided.
“Nothing this incredible and insane has happened before. This was not something that the forefathers anticipated. It’s unprecedented,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference on Capitol Hill.
“There is no legal precedent because no, no previous president had an autopen or had the audacity to have people signing things on their behalf when they didn’t even know what was in it. And so, we’re in uncharted waters as a nation.”
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee, following a months-long investigation, said former President Joe Biden’s executive actions signed by autopen are “void” and is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to consider whether Biden’s pardons and commutations might be invalid.
Johnson said the courts may ultimately decide whether the presidential action signed by Biden with autopen could be annulled.
“I would love to take this case and go into the court and make that law to set the precedent,” Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, said.
“You can’t allow a president to check out and have unelected, unaccountable, faceless people making massive decisions for the country.”
South Carolina activating fund used after hurricanes to assist with food aid
South Carolina is activating a statewide charity fund typically used after hurricanes as federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to stop on November 1 due to the government shutdown.
Gov. Henry McMaster announced that the Central Carolina Community Foundation has activated the One SC Fund and said he had directed the State Guard to assist food banks statewide.
The One SC Fund is a “statewide initiative supported by philanthropic donors and funders from across the state and country.” It has been activated a handful of times over the past decade after hurricanes — most recently after Hurricane Helene last year — and during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
Last month, more than 556,000 people in South Carolina received approximately $104 million in federal SNAP benefits, according to the state Department of Social Services.
Officials with Social Services and several food banks at a news conference cautioned that there is no “ready substitute that exists” for SNAP and noted that the effort is fully dependent on donations, during a time that food banks are already dealing with critically low resources.
“We are limited by the amount of the donations we receive,” according to Erinn Rowe, the CEO of Harvest Hope Food Bank. “It is going to take a statewide effort that is bigger than a philanthropy effort to fill in this gap that SNAP is leaving right now because of the volume.”
Democratic-led states sue Trump administration to keep SNAP food assistance funds flowing
A coalition of 25 Democratic-run states sued the Trump administration Tuesday to prevent billions of dollars of cuts to federal food assistance that are set to kick in this weekend.
Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states, plus Washington, DC, claimed in the lawsuit that the Trump administration was threatening “illegal” cuts to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.
The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program for 42 million Americans, “cannot simply suspend all benefits indefinitely, while refusing to spend funds from available appropriations for SNAP benefits for eligible households,” the lawsuit claims.
The White House has argued that it does not have the power to use that pot of existing money — known as its contingency fund — to cover the SNAP program beyond Saturday, because of the ongoing federal government shutdown.
“The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists,” officials in the Department of Agriculture wrote in a memo last week.
Virginia will build its own food assistance program to address SNAP shortfall
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his state is building its own food assistance system for residents who relied on federal food benefits that are being suspended during the government shutdown.
The Virginia Emergency Nutrition Assistance program, which Youngkin described as a “parallel” to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), will fund weekly benefits for food stamp recipients. The program will be activated if the government shutdown does not end before November 1, and residents will receive weekly benefits starting November 3.
The program will be funded through the state’s surplus, Youngkin said, and is estimated to cost about $37.5 million weekly. The governor said he is “currently prepared” to fund the program through November.
Aid will be given to the same group of SNAP recipients who received benefits in October and delivered directly to their existing SNAP cards. Many recipients may receive the state aid a day or two later than they would have received the food stamp benefits. Youngkin said he was directing $1 million be injected into Virginia’s food bank network by the weekend to address that shortfall.
Some context: Tens of millions of people across the country are expected to go without federal food assistance next month. While several states are providing millions of dollars in emergency food assistance to their residents, that aid is typically a small fraction of what residents would have received under SNAP.
CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.
Court hearing over concerns about federal agents’ tactics in Chicago has wrapped. Here’s a summary
Gregory Bovino, the top Border Patrol official overseeing the immigration crackdown in Chicago, testified before US District Judge Sara Ellis today after plaintiffs challenging the use of intense crowd control tactics and munitions accused him of violating Ellis’ restraining order imposing strict limits on the use of tear gas during immigration protests.
Ellis ordered Bovino to brief her in person every weekday for the next week on the operation and whether his agents are complying with her temporary restraining order.
Ellis also ordered that all use-of-force reports for Operation Midway Blitz from September 2 through last Saturday, along with any body camera footage, be turned over to the court under seal by the end of this week.
Here’s what happened
- Ellis and Bovino discussed where agents should wear identifiers, with Bovino arguing that placement can’t be uniform due to varying equipment. The judge insisted, “Conspicuous really has to be conspicuous. It just needs to be seen.”
- Bovino testified that the “vast majority” of the 200 agents working in the Chicago area are now wearing body cameras, but noted that he himself does not yet have one.
- Ellis reminded Bovino that warnings must be given before deploying tear gas and less-lethal munitions. Bovino argued, “Each situation is dependent on the situation.”
- The judge set a daily 6 p.m. CT appointment to receive updates on Operation Midway Blitz directly from Bovino until a preliminary injunction hearing on November 5. It was not immediately clear if those meetings would be held in open court.
- Although the judge expressed concern about recent tear-gassing incidents, she said she was confident that expanding the restraining order was not necessary.
Democrats stand firm on shutdown stance despite call from nation's largest public sector union to reopen
Democrats are showing no sign of wavering on their votes to block the stopgap bill, even as the nation’s largest public sector union urges them to reopen the government immediately.
“Normally, I’m on their side,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CNN, referring to the American Federation of Government Employees. “I’ve worked and advocated for federal employees, and they should be paid, no question, and I support legislation that will pay them, but they also have an interest in health care.”
Sen. Peter Welch agreed that it didn’t change his position but acknowledged AFGE’s plea is “real indication of how this is really tough on people. That’s why it’s really important for the president to get involved, because he’s the key person here.”
The Vermont Democrat said it will be “brutal” when his state faces the highest premium increases in the country, adding he doesn’t trust Republicans who say they’re willing to negotiate Affordable Care Act subsidies when the government reopens.
DHS releases video it says shows moments before tear gas deployment involving Border Patrol official
Minutes before Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino began his testimony today before US District Judge Sara Ellis at Chicago’s federal courthouse to answer her concerns about federal agents’ aggressive tactics in the city, the Department of Homeland Security released a video of the Thursday incident in which plaintiffs accused Bovino of unjustifiably throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd of protesters.
In today’s post, DHS says that protesters had begun to throw rocks and other objects at agents, including one that it says struck Bovino in the head before the tear gas was deployed during the protest in the Little Village neighborhood. That argument counters a court filing from last week, which alleged Bovino “apparently threw tear gas into a crowd without justification.”
CNN has reviewed the video, which shows at least one object thrown near Bovino. It also shows at least a couple people throwing objects. The video does not appear to show Bovino being struck in the head by an object.
In today’s post, the agency said Border Patrol agents repeated multiple warnings to back up — and that chemical agents would be deployed if warnings were ignored — before riot control measures were deployed, including by Bovino.
“A warning has to be, ‘I’m going to deploy tear gas,’” US District Judge Sara Ellis said during today’s hearing. “A warning does not consist of saying, ‘Get back’ or ‘Get out of here.’”
Bovino told the judge he believes “each situation is dependent on the situation.”
GOP senator pushes for bill to ensure SNAP benefits continue
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri raised alarms about federal food aid running out for many Americans, including his own constituents, as the shutdown standoff barrels toward a second month.
Hawley is leading a bipartisan bill to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits continue. He told CNN that while President Donald Trump has helped put a “Band-Aid” on some impacts of the shutdown, like military paychecks, he respects the administration’s assessment that it doesn’t have the legal authority to move contingency funds to bolster the food aid.
If Congress doesn’t find a solution on SNAP soon, Hawley warned, “650,000 people in Missouri are going to miss food assistance. I mean, people are going to go hungry. Forty-two million people nationwide. That’s way too many.”
Though Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t committed that he would bring up a standalone SNAP benefits bill, Hawley asserted that the legislation would need to come to a full floor vote to pass.
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said for now it’s on Democrats to end the shutdown to alleviate SNAP concerns, but if the government remains shuttered, “then we’ll look for ways to try to deal with it the best we can.”
Air traffic controller received paystub of $0
A paystub provided to CNN by an air traffic controller shows the $0 paid to the employee today.
This is the first time controllers are not getting fully paid since the start of the shutdown. Two weeks ago, controllers got paid for hours worked before the shutdown, which amounted to about 90% of a normal paycheck.
Top Senate appropriator argues USDA can use $5 billion contingency funds for SNAP, but says it wouldn’t be enough
Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters that her staff believes the USDA can use $5 billion in contingency funds for SNAP, and that she thinks Office of Management and Budget made the call not to use those funds. However, she noted that $5 billion still wouldn’t be enough to keep the program solvent through November.
“In my judgment, based on analysis that the attorneys on my staff have done. It is a novel interpretation for the department to claim that it cannot use that $5 billion in contingency money to help with SNAP benefits,” she said. “So I don’t think this was a USDA opinion. I really think it was imposed by OMB, and we’ve been having discussions with OMB attorneys. But even if the 5 billion is used, it’s not enough to cover the full month.”
Collins also spoke about air traffic controllers going unpaid, noting that she’s been on two flights into DCA in the last two weeks that aborted their landings, one after they were already on the ground and had to take off again.
“I’ve never had that happen, much less to DCA, much less two weeks in a row on a Sunday night. And I can’t help but think that reflects the strain on air traffic controllers as they’re working excessive hours and trying to cope with the reduced workforce, because some are not coming to work,” she said.
Asked if she was afraid for her own safety when that happened, she replied, “A lot of people on the plane were, I was not personally.”
Judge allows limited use of tear gas against Chicago protesters, despite concerns about overuse
Despite concerns that her restraining order imposing strict limits on the use of tear gas during immigration protests in Chicago is not being followed, a federal judge declined to tighten those restrictions Tuesday.
District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered federal agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz nearly two weeks ago to stop using tear gas unless there was an immediate safety threat and protesters were clearly warned before it was deployed.
Plaintiffs, including protest groups and local journalists, allege Customs and Border Protection have violated that order multiple times — including one involving the head of the operation — and argued the judge should respond by completely banning the use of tear gas against protesters.
Although Ellis spoke with concern about recent tear-gassing incidents, she said she was confident that expanding the restraining order was not necessary.
“I hope that after this morning … we’re all on the same page,” Ellis said at the end of a 90-minute hearing, adding, “I expect everybody to act reasonably.”
Ellis told Gregory Bovino, who leads Operation Midway Blitz, to ensure that both he and his agents have operational body-worn cameras by Friday and to turn over documentation on uses of force from the past two months.
A hearing to determine whether Ellis should convert her temporary restraining order into a longer-lasting preliminary injunction is scheduled for next week.
Controllers prepare for financial struggles as they miss first full paycheck
One air traffic controller enduring the burden of no pay during the federal government shutdown worries about how to pay for medicine, a union leader said Tuesday.
Daniels did not give further clarification on the controller’s situation but said the shutdown will only get harder for workers going without a paycheck.
“The pressure is real,” said another controller, Joe Segretto, who handles approaching and departing flights in New York, at the news conference.
“Somebody came to me and said … ‘I need your advice. What am I to do? Do I put gas in my car? Do I put food on the table? … We don’t have money for for daycare. What do I do?’ I didn’t have the answers,” Segretto said.
Today, controllers received their first $0 paycheck since the shutdown began nearly 30 days ago.
“This job is stressful enough,” Daniels said. “We go to work day in and day out and make thousands of decisions. We do it five days a week. Most of us actually do it six.”
Chicago judge orders daily updates from Bovino on immigration operation
A federal judge in Chicago has ordered Gregory Bovino, the top Border Patrol official overseeing the immigration crackdown in the city, to brief her in person every weekday for the next week on the operation and whether his agents are complying with her temporary restraining order.
Judge Sara Ellis set a daily 6 p.m. CT appointment to receive updates on Operation Midway Blitz directly from Bovino. Ellis said the appointments will continue until a November 5 hearing to consider whether to turn her temporary restraining order into a longer-lasting preliminary injunction. It was not immediately clear if those meetings will be held in open court.
Ellis said she did not want to “micromanage” the agency, but wants to ensure that Bovino’s operation is “done in a manner that is objectively reasonable.”
The judge summoned Bovino — the often brash and unapologetic patrol chief based in California — into her courtroom Tuesday after reports suggested agents were not following her order to warn protesters and journalists before using tear gas and less-lethal munitions for crowd control.
Ellis specifically cited a tear gas incident in Old Irving Park — described as “a fairly quiet neighborhood” — that occurred Saturday during a Halloween parade for costumed children.
“These kids, you can imagine their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday,” Ellis said, “and it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”
Bovino responded to Ellis’ questions respectfully while on the witness stand but avoided giving specific answers when Ellis presented protest response scenarios and asked whether tear gas would be permitted under her order.
Ellis also ordered that all use-of-force reports for Operation Midway Blitz from September 2 through last Saturday, along with any body camera footage recorded by federal agents relating to those incidents, be turned over to the court under seal by the end of this week.
“None of this is feasible for us to do,” said Trump administration attorney Christopher Marisak Lynch, but Ellis denied his request to delay the new order.
“I know my lane, and I will stay in my lane,” Ellis said. “But I’m also not afraid to enforce this (restraining order).”
Johnson says he's before spoken with Trump about "the constrictions of the Constitution" amid third term talk
House Speaker Mike Johnson says he doesn’t see a path to amending the US Constitution so Donald Trump could seek a third term and suggested the president is “trolling” Democrats.
The Republican leader said he has before spoken with Trump on the issue, and acknowledged that any change would be well after the president was out of office.
“It’s been a great run. But I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution, as much as so many of the American people lament that,” said Johnson, a former constitutional lawyer, in response to a question about his comfort-level with the president floating a 2028 bid.
“The Trump 2028 cap is one of the most popular that’s ever been produced. And he has a good time with that, trolling the Democrats, whose hair is on fire about the very prospect,” he continued.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump this morning while the president is overseas in Japan.
He added that he does not see a way to amend the Constitution, noting that it would be a lengthy and arduous process.
“I don’t see a way to amend the Constitution, because it takes about 10 years to do that, as you all know, to allow all the states to ratify … what two-thirds of the House, three-fourth of the states would approve. So I don’t, I don’t see the path for that.”
Trump on Monday continued to entertain the idea of running for a third term, telling reporters that he’d “love to do it.”
Nvidia CEO to meet with Trump in South Korea this week
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang plans to meet with President Donald Trump in South Korea on Wednesday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Huang said today at the chipmaker’s GTC AI conference in Washington, DC.
Nvidia said in August it was seeking clarity from the White House on how it could restart sales of its advanced AI chips to China, after agreeing to pay the US government 15% of its revenue from China sales.
AI chips have become a key point of leverage for the US in its trade talks with China. Trump is expected to discuss trade with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea this week.
Senate Democrats block GOP bill to reopen government for 13th time
Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ stopgap funding bill from advancing in a 54 to 45 vote.
Republicans need 60 votes to advance the bill that would fund the government through late November.
Three senators in the Democratic caucus voted with most Republicans. They were:
• Catherine Cortez Masto;
• John Fetterman;
• Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
GOP Sen. Rand Paul voted against advancing the measure.
NOW: The Senate is voting on Republicans' proposal to fund the government
Senators are now voting on a short-term government funding proposal from the Republican Party.
The House-passed stopgap bill would fund the government through November 21. It does not address Democrats’ health care demands.
It needs 60 votes to advance, meaning Republicans would need Democrats to sign on.
Top Border Patrol official in Chicago doesn't have a body camera
The Border Patrol chief overseeing the immigration enforcement surge in Chicago said he does not wear a body camera, despite regularly participating in operations covered by a judge’s restraining order.
Judge Sara Ellis told federal officials 12 days ago that agents must wear body cameras and have them turned on when encountering protesters in Chicago, as much as is practical. At a hearing four days later, a Customs and Border Protection commander told Ellis that every agent on duty had a body camera.
But Gregory Bovino, who leads Operation Midway Blitz, told Ellis that while the “vast majority” of his agents wear body cameras, he does not yet wear one himself and has not been trained on it. Bovino agreed to the judge’s request to work toward getting his own camera by Friday.
“I would like you to do your best to ensure everybody who is under this Midway Blitz operation that they all have body-worn cameras,” the judge said. “And I think it actually goes a long way to ensuring that everything is happening the way it’s supposed to.”
Plaintiffs have accused Bovino of violating the restraining order, alleging he was seen on an October 23 video throwing a tear gas canister into a crowd. The Department of Homeland Security said Bovino had been hit in the head beforehand, but that was not visible in publicly released videos.
The judge told Bovino that using body cameras will benefit his agents, who say their responses have been proportional to attacks by protesters.
“Cameras are your friends. If you are conducting enforcement activities in the street, and there is a threat, the body-worn camera is going to pick that up,” Ellis said. “And all I have to do is look at the video. So I would very much appreciate that you do everything you can to ensure all agents have them, know how to use them and are turning them on.”
Air traffic control staffing issues deepen as shutdown drags on
At multiple airports across the country, air traffic controllers are handing out leaflets asking travelers to ask their representatives to end the government shutdown.
CNN’s Pete Muntean breaks down the travel woes:
Air traffic controllers are set to miss their first full paycheck today as the US government shutdown drags on. CNN's Pete Muntean reports on how the shutdown could affect air travel.
