Rep. Van Orden Stands By as Trump’s Shutdown Steals Meals from Families He Represents

As President Donald Trump’s government shutdown drags into its third week, hundreds of thousands of people across Wisconsin are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden has been sitting on his hands (when he isn’t being a keyboard warrior).

Nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites rely on food assistance to put meals on the table for their families. While Van Orden has time to mock his own constituents and threaten to pull federal funding for rural hospitals in his district, he has not taken a stand to defend their food benefits or push the Republican party to end the shutdown.

“In September, Rep. Van Orden tweeted over 1000 times in less than two weeks, but after three weeks of the government shutdown, he’s failed to stand up to his own party’s refusal to fund the government and hasn’t done anything to support the thousands of families in his own district who will lose food assistance next month,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “Van Orden has shown he will attack the people he represents and threaten their access to health care, yet he refuses to defend them from the very real consequences of Trump’s shutdown.”

The threats to food assistance during the ongoing shutdown come on top of Rep. Van Orden’s vote this summer to cut nearly $200 billion from food assistance programs. Thousands of Wisconsin families now face the combined threat of lost benefits and rising economic pressures, with no leadership from their representative to protect them.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.