The country’s longest government shutdown is disrupting the lives of over 800,000 furloughed employees and having far-reaching consequences for public programs.
From the office of Senator Maria Cantwell:
Most agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have full appropriations and have not been forced to furlough employees. Nonetheless, we have seen that the partial shutdown is inflicting real and growing harm on some health-related parts of the federal government that are not funded, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (drug and device approvals, food inspection), the Indian Health Service (IHS) (health services for Tribal communities), and the Internal Revenue Service (calculation of Advanced Premium Tax Credits, evaluation of waivers, tax refunds). Many of these impacts were raised in a January 14 letter that Democratic health committee leaders sent to the Trump Administration. If your organization is seeing specific shutdown impacts or have related questions, let us know.
A letter signed by over 100 health care and advocacy groups urged an end to the shutdown citing concerns about public health including the FDA’s responsibility to ensure food safety, saying, “We fear a prolonged shutdown will cause needless suffering and have long-lasting health consequences. Basic health protections could be endangered by an ongoing shutdown.”
The letter highlighted the immediate negative impact on the Indian Health Service: “Indian Country has been disproportionately impacted by the shutdown, which is curtailing health care and programs for American Indian communities. … tribal governments are cutting other services and scraping together scarce dollars to keep health clinics operational in the short term. Many IHS employees working without pay are already reportedly looking for other jobs, which would be a huge blow to an agency that has great difficulty recruiting and retaining medical professionals in rural and remote areas. The shutdown is destabilizing Native health delivery and health care provider access, as well as destabilizing tribal governments, families, children and individuals. Services will be cut, and serious consequences to health and safety will be the result if the shutdown is not ended soon.”
The shutdown has also frozen HUD funds for low-income seniors in 34 housing projects in Washington State. February food assistance (SNAP/Basic Food and other programs) is being issued early due to the shutdown. However, it is unclear if funds will be available in March if the shutdown continues.
Many other agencies are affected. The Department of Justice attorneys have been requesting delays in order to file pleadings in lawsuits. In some cases judges have granted these but in others they have refused.