In addition to 800,000 federal employees being furloughed or working without a paycheck — 3,450 in Nevada — shutdowns tend to hurt lower-income people the most. States can’t receive allocations to fund services like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
However, Nevada is using reserved funding to keep certain services operational.
“While we will not be able to draw down any additional funding during the shutdown, we have received formal approval to utilize our reserves to continue funding TANF,” said Julie Balderson with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. “The (Division of Welfare and Supportive Services) consistently maintains 90 days of reserves in our TANF budget, thus we anticipate no impact to our clients during this shut down.”
Similarly, Head Start programs and the child care subsidy programs also aren’t being affected.
Though funding for services like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Women, Infants and Children is handled differently, Balderson says those programs aren’t hurt at the moment.
According to the Federal Funds Information for States Brief: “The USDA and OMB have jointly determined that there is Congressional intent that core programs of the nutrition safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Child Nutrition programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) shall continue operations during a lapse in appropriations.”
