PHOTO: The Arkansas Department of Human Services building on Main Street in downtown Little Rock. | John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate
By TESS VRBIN | Arkansas Advocate
The Arkansas Department of Human Services expects to furlough up to 1,534 employees and temporarily close its local offices within the next week and a half if the federal government does not reopen, the agency announced in a Friday news release.
The government shutdown that began Oct. 1 remained unresolved this week after Congress failed to pass a proposed deal to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
SNAP benefits were expected to cease on Nov. 1 before a federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to halt the program was illegal. The Massachusetts district judge gave the Trump administration until Monday to respond to her finding before she decides on a motion to force the benefits be paid despite the government shutdown.
A federal judge in Rhode Island also ordered Friday that USDA must continue SNAP payments.
Losing SNAP funding would force DHS to furlough 34 employees, “and multiple programs that receive federal funding through grants administered by DHS will have to cease those services,” according to the news release.
Those programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), and Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) initiatives.
The 34 employees set for immediate furlough are in DHS’ Office of Payment Integrity; Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services; and Division of County Operations.
DHS furloughed 37 employees in the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance on Oct. 1, and they remain furloughed, the news release states.
If the shutdown continues through Nov. 7, DHS will temporarily close its offices in all 75 Arkansas counties and furlough 1,500 Division of County Operations employees starting Nov. 10. All of those positions and operations are federally funded.
“The government shutdown has put enormous strain on many services we offer, and we are deeply concerned that important benefits Arkansans rely on will suffer as a result,” DHS Secretary Janet Mann said in the news release. “First and foremost, this will be painful for the beneficiaries we serve, and we regret that we have been placed in this position. It will also be painful for the hundreds of employees within our agency who will not be paid for as long as this shutdown continues.”
If DHS loses SNAP funding, its DHS’ electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system will still be operational in November in case SNAP recipients have some previous benefits saved, according to the news release.
More than 222,000 individuals and over 118,000 households received SNAP benefits as of Sept. 1, according to another DHS news release.
To alleviate the impact on families losing food assistance, Arkansas will distribute $500,000among six regional food bank networks, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Friday morning.
The government shutdown’s impact on Arkansas government services has not been limited to DHS.
The Pulaski County locations of Arkansas’ federally-funded early childhood education program, Head Start, will temporarily close Saturday due to a lack of funding, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences announced last week. The six facilities in Little Rock and North Little Rock serve 446 children from low-income families, and 130 employees will be furloughed.
Another impact of the shutdown on child care is the Department of Education’s lack of access to funds supporting the School Readiness Assistance Program, which helps low-income families access child care. The program was already financially insolvent and had a waitlist of over 1,100, department officials said in September. That waitlist has grown to 1,569, according to the program’s website.
An emergency working group of child care experts proposed a months-long financial solution that the department will decide Friday whether to accept.
The Arkansas Department of Health will continue administering Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits until mid-November if the shutdown does not end by then, department officials said last week.
The eventual reopening of the federal government is expected to cause delays in processing SNAP cases, according to Friday’s DHS news release.
Medicaid benefits will continue uninterrupted because the program is federally funded through the end of the calendar year.