2023-09-28 10:53:47
NEW YORK. With a persistent political deadlock in Washington, a government shutdown looks increasingly likely ahead of Saturday night’s deadline.
While the Senate moves forward with a bipartisan approach aimed at keeping the government operating, spending measures continue to face difficulties in passing the Republican-majority House of Representatives.
If there is a government shutdown, millions of federal employees will be furloughed and many more, including those who work for the military and the Transportation Security Administration, will be forced to work without pay until the government reopens. .
A handful of federal programs that people across the country rely on every day might also be affected, from a decrease in funding for food assistance to possible delays in customer service for beneficiaries of the Medicare and Social Security programs. The repercussions will be reduced by the duration of the government shutdown and the various contingency plans in the affected agencies.
“Collectively, hundreds of millions of Americans, a majority of the population, receive some form of government benefit,” said Forrest V. Morgeson III, associate professor at Michigan State University’s Broad School of Business. He stressed that a possible government shutdown might bring financial uncertainty and significant economic implications.
Here’s a look at what you should know:
Will the closure affect the nutrition assistance program?
A government shutdown might jeopardize the access of millions of low-income Americans to food and nutrition assistance programs, and its impacts will depend on the duration of the shutdown and the contingency funding for each program.
Nearly seven million women and children who depend on the Special Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) would be at risk of losing assistance almost immediately following the shutdown, according to President Joe Biden’s administration. . This is because the federal contingency fund that supports the normal operation of WIC will likely be depleted in a matter of days, leaving states to rely on their own resources or surplus funds.
Affected families “will have to go to food banks,” said Dr. Nancy Nielsen, senior associate dean for health policy at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. “These are people who need help. They are mothers. They are infants. “This is a real problem.”
Families benefiting from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) might also lose assistance if the closure is prolonged. According to the Department of Agriculture, no matter what happens this week in Washington, families will receive SNAP assistance as usual through October.
What will happen to Head Start and free school lunches?
Head Start programs serving more than 10,000 disadvantaged children would immediately lose federal resources, although they might avoid a suspension of activities as long as the government shutdown is not prolonged.
Those 10 programs, located in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and South Carolina, serve only a fraction of the 820,000 minors enrolled in the program at any given time.
Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, said the programs are struggling because their grants begin Oct. 1. Programs with grants that do not begin on that date will continue to receive resources. But if the shutdown drags on, the number of affected programs will increase as more grants require renewal.
Aside from Head Start, concerns have also been raised around free school lunches. But the Agriculture Department says it does not anticipate any immediate problems with federal nutritional programs for children, including school lunches, because support for these programs is provided in part by permanent, mandatory funding authority.
In the event of a government shutdown, state and federal operations for child nutrition will continue through October and possibly for a few more months, according to the department. But the agency would not have the capacity to support these programs for the entire year without appropriations.
Will they still receive social security checks?
Regardless of what happens in Washington this weekend, beneficiaries of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will continue to receive their payments. But response time for people in difficulty might be delayed due to furloughs imposed on employees.
“If you have a question regarding Social Security, you may not find anyone to answer it,” Nielsen said. “But the daily operations of sending checks will continue.”
According to a recent Social Security Administration contingency plan, the agency will suspend non-critical actions and those “not directly related to accurate and timely benefit payments.” Issuance of new and replacement Social Security cards will also continue.
Will it affect Medicare and other health services?
Medicare and Medicaid benefits will also continue, because both are mandatory programs funded separately from annual appropriations. That means patients will still be able to see their doctors and have their medical bills paid.
But similar to Social Security, there might be delays and interruptions in customer service due to employee furloughs. According to contingency information released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services, regarding half of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will have to put their employees on leave in case assignments fail.
Would flights and travel be affected?
The nation’s air travel system is scheduled to operate relatively normally during a government shutdown. Air traffic controllers and TSA screeners are considered essential employees, however, they will not be paid until the government shutdown ends, and screening lines will become longer if many screeners stay home.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that air travel will remain safe during a government shutdown, but training for new air traffic controllers will be suspended and 1,000 trainers will be placed on leave.
Long before this week’s deadline, airlines were complaining that a shortage of air traffic controllers was causing flight delays and cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration said in August that it had hired 1,500 controllers in the past year and asked Congress for resources to hire another 1,800 in the new fiscal year.
Passport and visa processing will continue during a government shutdown “to the extent the situation permits,” according to a directive the State Department issued last week to its employees. The agency said that consulates in the United States and abroad will remain open “as long as there are sufficient collections to finance operations,” but passport work might be suspended if the building where the respective work is carried out is closed.
The time it takes for a passport or visa is much longer than before the pandemic. Most Customs and Border Protection agents are also considered essential and are expected to continue working at airports and border crossings.
Could there be suspensions in student credits?
If the spending measures are not approved by Saturday’s deadline, the government shutdown will begin the same day student loans emerge from the pandemic pause following they began accruing interest once more on Sept. 1.
But whether or not there is a government shutdown, creditors will have to make their payments. In most cases, loan servicers will be able to continue processing payments regularly, but there might be delays for those who need to consult or seek assistance from the Department of Education due to potential employee furloughs at the agency.
Students applying for federal aid during a government shutdown can expect similar delays due to the same situation. Officials have flagged possible disruptions to processing Free Applications for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), disbursing Pell Grants and seeking a waiver of public loans, for example.
And the postal service?
The government shutdown will not affect the United States Postal Service (USPS). The service does not depend on taxpayer dollars because its funding generally comes from the sales of products and services.
Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City contributed to this report.
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