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Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. There's mounting pressure on lawmakers to get a government open. It's not just Democrats. Republicans are suffering too.
We ought to come together and go to the government. Several unions are calling on Democrats to give in. Will they? Our t-ness, that's legal.
And this is up first from NPR News. Millions of Americans could lose snap food benefits tomorrow. The Trump Administration says it cannot legally dip into emergency funds. That can leave those now court.
Will it judge or so White House to refine the program? And President Trump says he wants a U.S. to test nuclear weapons again for the first time in decades. If we were to start an explosive test in the US, we'd be able to test people to get ready to get to China.
And they would be able to close the federal government to get to the United States. So why now? Stay with us. We'll give you the news.
Tomorrow, things are going to get a lot worse for many Americans in the midst of the shutdown. Snap food benefits will run out for about 42 million people. Saturday's also went open enrollment begins on federal insurance exchanges and premiums are expected to more than double on average. Democrats want to extend health care subsidies to keep those costs down.
But Thursday, major airlines ask Congress to pass Republican stop gap funding plan. Here's United Airlines CEO's got to be. It's been 30 days and I don't have a position on which part is inside and how things should be settled throughout healthcare. It has been 30 days.
I also think it is time to pass at KELOLAND. The largest union for federal employees already made a similar cause of how long can Democrats continue to hold out? And PR congressional correspondent Barbara went to a town hall in Maryland last night to hear what Democratic Senator Angela also Brooks and her constituents have to say in one of our own. Good morning.
First, I just want to know our Democratic lawmakers, the only ones feeling pressure right now. Well, you know, on Capitol Hill, long years on both sides of the aisle are talking a lot about the consequences of the shutdown. People going about, hey, the impending loss of some nutrition assistants. But that hasn't translated to any concrete action.
Both sides remain incredibly dug in. And so at this town hall last night, I asked the Senator, so how does it end? I think that the pain that has been allowed to grow impacts all of us. It's not just Democrats.
Republicans are suffering too. And I think so. My colleagues will soon find out that their constituents are suffering as well. And that we all come together and go to see just asking about pressure.
It seems like Democrats are banking on Republican constituents applying pressure to Republican lawmakers. OK. So you're at this town hall. We heard unions already calling on Democrats to pass the continuing resolution from Republicans and get it over with.
Is that also the sentiment you heard from voters? No. I mean, in fact, the people that I spoke with at this event told me they want Senate Democrats to hold that line when it comes to withholding their votes, hoping to get negotiations on healthcare. Yours to get in a constant, one of the attendees.
I think they should hold out as long as possible. It's clear who's shutdown is is. You know, Republicans hold all the leverage in all the cards. And if we back out now, then we're just showing again that the party has no backbone.
Now, this is on track to become the longest running government shutdown. The last long one was in 2014 for 34 days. What are some of the ways that make this shutdown feel different? Well, Democrats have traditionally been hesitant to shut the government down.
We don't even have to cast too far back. The government came from every way here. I think in March, there was a sense that Democrats may hold out on supporting a bill that was on the government. Senate mayor, Senator Chuck Schumer ended up voting alongside Republicans.
I shut down as a way to, and I was with a lot of House Democrats. I retreat when he made that announcement signaling his support. And they were very upset about it. And I think he was, as the party in the minority, they have very few opportunities to force negotiation.
And they view the shutdown as one of the only, not the only, ways to influence the process. So that brings us to today. And since the shutdown began, we have seen Democrats really united. They are exerting this one leverage point as they called it.
They don't appear to be backing down and they seem to think that Republicans will take the blame. Not that I'm not about Republicans was their response. They're messages. And hey, we are holding votes to fund the government Democrats aren't voting with us.
If they care about things like funding, you should need it and paying air traffic controllers, then they should vote us. I just haven't majority leader John Thun earlier this week. This is a political game. These are real people's eyes we're talking about.
You all just figure out $29 days and $10. Might be some consequences. And we should say, the Senate has quite a bit of building data left at a weekend. That's our congressional correspondent Barbara Srunte.
Thank you. As we've just heard, 42 million people will start to get cut off from staff benefits tomorrow as the shutdown drives on. That's never happened before. If our judge is deciding whether to order the Trump administration, find other ways to get people money to buy food.
Here to tell more about all this and what that state is in the general line. Hi, Jennifer. Okay, so remind us why the administration said it had to cut off staff benefits and what's the legal challenge to that? Well, we could go the agriculture department posted on his website that the well has run dry.
In a memo, the agency said because of the shutdown, it doesn't have enough money for staff benefits. And for November, it said it cannot legally use what's in a contingency fund. They argue that is meant for emergencies like natural disasters. Democratic governors in a term of about two dozen states to suit.
They said snap is an entitlement to can't just be cut off and doing so would cause irreparable harm. A judge enters Hilani in Boston seemed to agree with the states. She put it bluntly, Congress put money in emergency fund. And it is hard for me to understand how this is not in emergency.
The judge said lawmakers clearly wanted to protect the American people and he vetted something like a shutdown. And there in tension said I'm quoting here, we're not going to make everyone drop dead because it's a political game someplace else. So we can not really build reference there to the blame game between Republicans and Democrats over the shutdown. Yeah, so millions of people who depend on staff food aid won't get it tomorrow.
Assuming the judge does rule in favor of the states. When will people actually get the money? It's a good question. Even if a ruling comes today or very soon, there will still be some delay.
And normally the federal government sends this funding to states well before the first of the month. And then it takes days to get onto the debt like cards people use at stores. There's an added publication full snap funding for numbers about nine billion dollars. There's only five and a half billion in the contingency fund according to the administration.
And it has to be calculating for partial payments with be logistical nightmare could take weeks. So people will have to wait. We don't know for sure how long and they'll get less money. Meanwhile, I should add a second law suit file yesterday over cutting off snap payments.
So what's that line about? So this is the federal student Rhode Island by eight cities around the country, also nonprofits and business groups. They say ending snap payments would harm not only people, but also local economies. And that includes small businesses really rely on grocery sales from shoppers using snap.
In the meantime, states and states have been scrambling to try and fill the gap or help fill the gap during this delay. Can you do the sense of what they're doing? Yeah, they've got states like Virginia and Vermont who shifted money to actually people directly at least temporarily, others just having up donations to food banks or looking to help people who may fall behind on their bills. And you know, people in these places really say they're dealing with a cascade of cutbacks, not just the shutdown, but mass federal layoffs and funding that's been happening all this year.
And Pierre's Jennifer, let me thank you Jennifer. Thank you. President Trump's on Thursday that he wants to test a nuclear weapon. The decision could have huge ramifications.
The US hasn't conducted such a test in decades. So how would a test like that be done was out in our science and security course on a Jeff Brumfield. So Jeff, where are you first with these? I'll tell you, well, there's only one place these tests can be done.
And that's a desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. And a place called the Nevada National Security Sciences, big sprawling complex. It's bigger than the safer Iowa, actually. Scientists would drill shaft to probably thousands of feet into the ground.
They grew up and they grew up and they grew down there. Then they fill it up with dirt and rock and hit the bottom. So why has it been so long since the US test of a new the world's major nuclear powers have observed a moratorium on testing since 1990s. That was the end of the cold work course.
It was kind of a goodwill gesture also helped to ensure stability that there was an arms race. The US embarked on a program that uses science at that time. And so the idea was to make sure the weapons work without testing. And a lot of that science has been done in the very same tunnels in Nevada where they used to test.
And I had a very, very unusual opportunity to go underground last year at 1000 feet. I saw these sophisticated experiments that the US was doing down there instead of nuclear testing. And while I was there, I met Don Haynes, a physicist from Las Vegas National Laboratory. That's of course the land that made the first bomb.
At the time Haynes told me there was no need for a system's test of a nuke. Our system is that there are no system questions that would be answered by a test. That would be the work, the expense, and the effort, and the time. Haynes was very quick to add that decision on testing was above his pay grade.
And it was down to people like President Trump to make that choice. So why does President Trump want to test out? We're not actually sure. But earlier this week, Russia said it tested some very controversial systems.
One was a nuclear powered cruise missile. The other was a nuclear powered underwater torpedo that could be used to attack US cities. Both of these weapons could evade Trump's proposed golden-dome missile defense systems. And many experts thought that could be the reason why Trump wants to test out their nuclear power.
Those weren't nuclear weapons tests, but still. So if the US doesn't be resumed nuclear testing, will the possible consequences be? Many experts basically said the consequences would be bad. For one thing, the US did way more nuclear tests during the Cold War than Russia and China.
So John Wolfsall at the Federation of American Scientists told me this. We have a huge technical data over both those countries. And if we were to start exclusively testing the weapons against the Soviet Russia and China, and they would be able to close the technical gap with the United States. And their environmental consequences as well.
You know, Las Vegas has expanded massively in the past 30 years, even if the radiation has contained underground scientists expect. The shaking from above, even all that way away, it could be enough to damage buildings near the site. As MBRs, you have run field, John, thanks. Thank you.
Now's the first for Friday, October 31st. Happy Halloween. I'm in the fall then. Let me mark.
The United States families around the world are not having as many kids as they used to be. So we're saying, when are having happened to each other now when they did it in the 19th settings? We can understand a story why our so many families making this choice and what exactly does it mean for our future? That's this Sunday right here in the upper target.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by Captain Leylau Kelsey Snow, right near the moment of the Reddy Z. In the National