Biden, US officials warn of hunger for millions in a government shutdown
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Some benefits could be affected within days or weeks if Congress fails to provide funding for the fiscal year starting on Oct 1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden and one of his top aides warned on Monday that a federal government shutdown could cause widespread suffering, including a rapid loss of food benefits for nearly seven million low-income women and children.
Mr Biden told a meeting on Historically Black Colleges and Universities that failure by Congress to fund the federal government
The President said he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had agreed a few months ago on spending levels for the government.
“We made a deal, we shook hands,” he said. “Now a small group of extreme House Republicans… don’t want to live up to that deal, and everyone in America could be faced with paying the price for it.”
Asked if he had spoken to Mr McCarthy, Mr Biden said, “I haven’t.” He shook his head when asked when they would speak.
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters earlier that the “vast majority” of the seven million participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Programme for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) programme would see an immediate reduction in benefits in the days and weeks after a shutdown starts.
Nearly half of US newborns rely on WIC, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.
A separate benefits programme, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap), will continue as normal for the month of October but could be affected afterward, Mr Vilsack said.
More than 40 million Americans relied on Snap to make ends meet in 2022; inflation has put new pressure on household budgets, with prices higher since the Covid-19 pandemic for goods from bread to fresh vegetables and baby formula.
During a shutdown, farm service agencies will also stop making loans to farmers during harvest time, and new homebuyers will not be able to get loans in rural areas, Mr Vilsack said.
More than 50,000 USDA workers will be furloughed, meaning they will not receive a pay cheque.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives may move to advance steep spending cuts this week that would almost certainly be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
While the cuts would not become law, a failure by both Chambers to agree could force a partial shutdown of the US government by next Sunday.
House lawmakers on Tuesday were set to take up four spending Bills for the coming fiscal year that would also impose new restrictions on abortion access, undo an US$11 billion (S$15 billion) Biden administration climate initiative and resume construction of the Mexico-US border wall, a signature initiative of former president Donald Trump.
Mr Biden has vowed to veto at least two of the Bills.
Mr Vilsack called Republican fiscal plans “punitive” and “petty”. REUTERS
