We’re on Day 4 of the first federal government shutdown in 17 years. Here in D.C., the subway and the streets are noticeably emptier without thousands of federal workers on the job. And while a few might be enjoying their time off to take advantage of the shutdown-themed happy hours around town, most are worried about the financial consequences of a prolonged shutdown for themselves and their families (especially since many have already faced pay freezes and furloughs thanks to the sequester and other budget cuts).
But it’s not just the 800,000 furloughed federal workers who are affected by the shutdown. Some federal contractors won’t get paid, either – including workers making close to minimum wage who are unlikely to have much in the way of savings to fall back on. And low-income families who depend on federally funded programs are suffering, too. For example:
- Federal payments for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food and services to millions of low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants and young children each month, are suspended during the shutdown. While states may be able to keep the program running for a few more weeks, some WIC clinics are already closing, and more will run out of funds as the shutdown drags on.
- The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program is a block grant to states to fund cash assistance, work supports, and other services for low-income children and parents (mostly single mothers). Federal TANF funding expired September 30, so states will have to advance the funds until the shutdown ends – or stop providing benefits, as Arizona did on Wednesday, cutting off assistance to over 5,000 low-income families.
- On Tuesday, the federal government could not distribute funds to 23 Head Start programs that were scheduled to receive their annual grant that day; those 23 programs, which serve nearly 19,000 children from low-income families, will be forced to close. Prior to October 1, another 57,000 children had already lost Head Start services due to sequester cuts. While most Head Start programs can continue to operate for a while, an extended shutdown will put more grants at risk.
- Meals on Wheels, which provides food for low-income, homebound seniors, has also cut services this year due to sequestration; without any new federal funding under the shutdown, the program will only be able to operate for another week or two without making more cuts. Elderly women, who live longer than men and are more likely to be poor, are especially at risk from cuts to nutrition assistance.
- The federal agency that distributes Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) funds to domestic violence programs across the country announced that it will close if the shutdown lasts beyond today – meaning programs that rely on VAWA funding may soon reduce services. Many of these programs, too, have already been affected by sequester cuts that have eliminated access to recovery programs and shelters for an estimated 70, 120 victims of domestic violence.
The impact of the shutdown will be more severe the longer it lasts, but it is not at all clear when (or how) it might end. House Republican leaders have refused to put the clean temporary funding measure (known as a continuing resolution, or CR) passed by the Senate to a vote, even though the Senate bill maintains the sequester and funds the government at levels much closer to the House-passed budget plan than the Senate’s own FY 2014 budget; they forced the shutdown by demanding that provisions of the health care law (a.k.a. “Obamacare”) – which will help millions of Americans gain affordable coverage and expand women’s access to preventive services like contraception – be delayed or defunded in exchange for agreeing to keep the government running. The latest move from House Republican leaders is to agree to keep parts of the government operating, like the national parks and museums, while maintaining the shutdown elsewhere. But this piecemeal approach would ignore the impact of the shutdown on many of the most vulnerable Americans, and it is a highly irresponsible way to run a government.
It’s now past time for Congress to agree to a bill that ends the shutdown with no further strings attached – and to raise the debt ceiling, so we’re not facing a far more serious crisis in just a couple of weeks. If Congress can find a way out of the current politically created crisis, then maybe – just maybe – it can stop driving the recovery backward and begin to help women, families, and the economy move forward.