(NEXSTAR) – In just a few hours, the U.S. government might face its first shutdown in seven years due to a deadlock over healthcare and budget issues. While the Senate plans to vote on funding proposals Tuesday night, it is likely that the measures will not proceed, as reported by The Hill.
If an agreement isn’t reached by the Oct. 1 deadline, federal employees could face layoffs or receive reduction-in-force (RIF) notices. Popular tourist spots, such as the Smithsonian museums, U.S. Capitol tours, and the National Zoo, would close their doors. Additionally, national parks might shut down. Flights could experience delays since air traffic controllers and TSA agents would work without pay, and some might opt not to work at all, as seen in the last shutdown.
There are, however, some aspects of the government that would remain open and functioning.
Social Security and Veterans Affairs benefits will still be disbursed. Services like Medicare and Medicaid will still be available.
But what about the food assistance programs SNAP and WIC?
In 2023, prior to narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, the Biden administration cautioned that federal food assistance for 7 million mothers and young children reliant on WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) would be at risk without a resolution. As a potential partial government shutdown looms in 2024, officials noted that WIC could offer support briefly before needing to prioritize specific recipients.
WIC, managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides for low-income pregnant women, nursing mothers, postpartum women, infants, and children up to age 5, and is funded yearly, making it vulnerable during current discussions on the shutdown.
SNAP, which provides food assistance to low-income families across the country, operates differently. Benefits for each month are distributed in advance, as explained by a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also manages SNAP, to Nexstar. Thus, October’s benefits should still be delivered as scheduled.
A USDA spokesperson informed Nexstar on Tuesday that the “USDA is prepared for all contingencies regarding Department operations, including critical services and supports.”
The Food Research and Action Center has, however, warned that “November SNAP benefits could be delayed or interrupted entirely” if states do not receive instruction from the USDA on time. (Each state is tasked with transmitting a SNAP recipient’s benefit amount to an EBT vendor so the recipient’s EBT card can be loaded.)
The non-profit organization also said that, because states have not yet received WIC funding for the next fiscal year, the program could be disrupted. States may ultimately have to “rely on their own funding streams” to keep WIC afloat, the National Association of Counties said.
WIC could run out of funding in October, an unnamed senior Trump administration official said last week, according to RealClearPolitics.
Latest on possible government shutdown
As of 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, a government shutdown is less than 12 hours away.
More specifically, the government would shut down at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday if the Senate does not pass a House measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while lawmakers finish their work on annual spending bills.
Senate Democrats say they won’t vote for it unless Republicans include an extension of expiring health care benefits, among other demands. President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans say they won’t negotiate, arguing that it’s a stripped-down, “clean” bill that should be noncontroversial.
“It’s only the president who can do this. We know he runs the show here,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday morning after a bipartisan White House meeting the day before yielded little apparent progress. Schumer said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate.
“Republicans have until midnight tonight to get serious with us,” Schumer said.
Trump posted a fake, mocking video of Democrats after the meeting. “They lost the election in a landslide, and they don’t change,” Trump said Tuesday morning.
The last shutdown was in Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded that Congress give him money for his U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.
The Associated Press and Nexstar’s Alix Martichoux contributed to this report.
