As the partial government shutdown now enters its 25th day, we wanted to bring you a few updates. Unfortunately, there is very little news of progress in reaching a compromise that will reopen those parts of the government that are currently shut down. In the meantime, the Department of Agriculture announced that there is enough funding to keep WIC, SNAP and child nutrition programs operational through at least the end of February and has identified other funding that may be allocated at a later date if necessary.

As a reminder, the Title V MCH Block Grant and most funding that comes through the Department of Health and Human Services is still available because funding for those programs is appropriated through the appropriations bill for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies and this bill was one of the five that Congress succeeded in passing and securing the President’s signature into law for FY 2019. However, full funding of discretionary programs across the federal government relies on passage of 12 bills in total. The bills that fund the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Indian Health Service (IHS), WIC and SNAP, among other agencies and programs, were not passed into law before previous funding lapsed, which is why those agencies and programs are subject to the shutdown.

We understand that Title V agencies already or may in the near future feel more directly the effects of the shutdown due to grants from agencies and programs that are under the jurisdiction of one of those seven lapsed funding bills and/or because there may come a time when Title V funding may be necessary to support programs that are unfunded. If you have any stories to share about the effects of the shutdown on your department or have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact Amy Haddad (ahaddad@amchp.org) or Alyson Northrup (anorthrup@amchp.org) with AMCHP’s government affairs team.