First Focus

A Government Shutdown Hurts America’s Children

October 1, 2013

A government shutdown is bad for America’s children and families. Families all across our nation will be impacted – and the longer it goes on, the worse it will be. Here are some of the ways children and families will feel the effects:

• The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) will no longer provide nutrition support to millions of at risk mothers and children. While there may be some contingency funds left to fund WIC for a few days, according to the Department of Agriculture: “states would likely be unable to sustain operations for a longer period.” Due to sequestration cuts, much of the existing contingency fund was exhausted to ensure families were not cut off the program in March of this year. WIC provides nutrition support for 9 million Americans.
• By some estimates, nearly 19,000 three and four year olds will be locked out of their prekindergarten classrooms as funding for some Head Start and Early Head Start grantees runs out. Head Start centers, like these in South Carolina and Columbia, Missouri, which begin their fiscal year on October 1st will find their accounts empty. On top of the 57,000 children who were kicked out of Head Start because of sequestration, this is unacceptable smack in the face to America’s families.
• Public schools that receive federal funding to support low-income kids or supplements for military families will remain open. If a shutdown were to last more than a week, according to the Department of Education they will face severely limited cash flows. Furloughed staff will create a backlog for payments that could last weeks even after government operations resumed. Technical assistance for school districts and organizations receiving Race to the Top and Promise Neighborhood awards will not be available. Many school districts receive more than 20 percent of their funds from the federal government.

Harder to quantify are the ripple effects on the children of the nearly 1 million federal employees who will be furloughed without pay. The Congressional staffer who is out on maternity leave or the maintenance worker at the Smithsonian that has enough savings to maybe manage two or three weeks are some of the people who will be impacted. This again comes on top of the furloughs already endured this year form sequestration cuts. In previous shutdowns, back pay has always been granted, but with the state of current fiscal negotiations there is no guarantee these public servants will be made whole.

Schools and families planning to visit national parks, museums, and historic sites around the country will be turned away. The National Institute of Health will be unable to accept new patients, including severely ill children. In an extended shutdown the Department of Veteran’s Affairs will not be able to pay out disability and survivors’ compensation, billions of which benefit children. Programs to protect children from abuse will be closed.

As our economy slowly recovers and families begin to dig out from the recession, anything that jeopardizes this progress is a step in the wrong direction. At a time when one in every four children lives in poverty – Congress must pass a federal budget that helps families, and not hurts them. We cannot afford to gamble with our children’s future.