By Wayne Gates

Brown County residents on the SNAP program could be getting their February benefits a few weeks early, thanks to the continuing federal government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is one of the agencies affected by the shutdown, administers and pays for the program that most people refer to as “food stamps”.

Mitch Sharp, Director of Brown County Job and Family Services, said that February benefits will be disbursed to Brown County residents, but the normal timing may change based on events associated with the government shutdown.

The USDA sent out a press release on January 9 that said that states will need to take action to issue February benefits on or before January 20, 2019.

“Once these early issuances are made, the February benefits will be made available to SNAP participants at that time. SNAP monthly issuance for February is estimated to be approximately $4.8 billion and State administrative expense (SAE) is estimated at about $350 million for a total need of approximately $5.1 billion,” said the press release.

“At President Trump’s direction, we have been working with the Administration on this solution. It works and is legally sound. And we want to assure states, and SNAP recipients, that the benefits for February will be provided,” Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in the press release.

Bret Crow, Director of Communications for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, told The Brown County Press in an e-mail; “For the time being, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services continues to provide benefits and services. We are researching the new guidance issued by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service on Tuesday. In addition, we continue to monitor the situation in Washington closely, are in contact with our federal partners, and will make every effort to minimize any impact to those we serve.”

The USDA is using a provision of the law which allows programs like SNAP to secure funding prior to 30 days after previous funding has expired.

In this case, funding expired on December 21, meaning that new funds must be spent by January 20.

Regarding other federal assistance programs, “USDA has also ensured the other major nutrition assistance programs have sufficient funding to continue operations into February. The child nutrition programs, including school meals and after-school programs have funding available to continue operations through March.”

The press release continued; “The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has prior year funding which USDA will begin to provide states this week to facilitate February benefits. Other FNS programs, which provide critical assistance to our nation’s food banks, the elderly, and Tribal nations, may continue to utilize grant funding provided prior to the lapse in appropriations. Commodity deliveries to those programs will continue.”

The USDA said that other nutrition programs, including school meals and the Child and Adult Care Food Program will be funded through March.

Approximately 25 percent of the federal government officially shut down on December 21 after a funding agreement was not reached between Congress and President Trump over border security.

A shutdown means that any agency employee or function that is determined to be non-essential to public safety and security stops until funding is restored.

Agencies affected include the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury. NASA and the Food and Drug Administration are also affected.

Social Security payments will not be affected by the shutdown and will continue, as will Medicare and Medicaid.

But what are the effects of the shutdown on Brown County and its citizens? That depends on how long the shutdown lasts.

The Adams Brown Community Action Partnership is a clearing house for many federal programs on a local level. Those include rent subsidies for housing that come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I’ve been notified that direct reimbursement from the federal government for HUD could be affected and not received as long as the shutdown was in progress,” said ABCAP Director Alvin Norris.

“We have low income housing programs for senior citizens as well as physically and mentally handicapped clients. We would probably be able to continue those services for several weeks before we would have to address it.”

Norris said that he believes there will be little disruption in other benefit programs.

“We have been told that federal programs where the money comes through the state like WIC and other health department programs or HEAP for emergency heating will probably not be affected,” he said.

Norris said that he and ABCAP have been here before and that he hoped the issue would be resolved without too much disruption.

“We have had to address this on a few occasions over the past twenty years or so and we have never had a shutdown last 30 days. Usually, it gets fixed pretty fast,” he said.

Norris also said that vulnerable citizens should not be caught in the middle of a political fight.

“Using the welfare of the public as a weapon to fight each other is not the most conscientious thing that the government should be involved in. This type of maneuver is basically threatening the welfare of the population to get someone to do what you want them to do. To me, that’s not appropriate,” he said.

According to the USDA, the following activities would not be continued and would be shut down in an orderly fashion during a government funding lapse. These activities include:

Provision of new rural development loans and grants for housing, community facilities, utilities and businesses.

All recreation sites across the U.S National Forest System, unless they are operated by external parties under a recreational special use permit.

New timber sales.

Most forest fuels reduction activities in and around communities.

NASS statistics, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, and other agricultural economic and statistical reports and projections.

Investigation of packers and stockyards related to fraudulent and anti-competitive activities.

Assistance for the control of most plant and animal pests and diseases unless funded by cooperators or other non-appropriated sources.

Research facilities except for the care for animals, plants and associated infrastructure to preserve agricultural research.

Provision of new grants or processing of payments for existing grants to support research, education, and extension.

ERS Commodity Outlook Reports, Data Products, research reports, staff analysis, and projections. The ERS public website would be taken offline.

Most departmental management, administrative and oversight functions, including civil rights, human resources, financial management, audit, investigative, legal and information technology activities.

Mandatory Audits (Financial Statements, FISMA, and potentially Improper Payments) will be suspended and may not be completed and released on the date mandated by law.

After the first week, farm loans and some farm payments (including direct payments, market assistance loans, market facilitation payments for those producers who have not certified production, and disaster assistance programs).

Portions of this article originally appeared in the January 3 edition of The News Democrat. To subscribe to the best local news first, call 513-732-2511.

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