If the federal government shutdown doesn’t end by Saturday, about 1.4 million Ohioans will lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, otherwise known as food stamps, when federal dollars are halted. Ohio lawmakers are split over what the state should do to head off those federal cuts.
Democratic state lawmakers are calling on Gov. Mike DeWine take emergency action and are pushing a bill that would allocate money from the state's rainy-day fund. But while majority Republicans say they are sympathetic to the situation, they say it's up to Democrats at the federal level to change the situation.
Democratic state senators proposed an amendment that would have given emergency state funds to bridge the gap, their Republicans colleagues said this isn't a state issue. Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) was among those who said Ohio Democrats need to put pressure on their counterparts in Washington D.C. to pass a continuing spending measure that could immediately stop the shutdown.
"What's going on right now in DC is ridiculous. This is the ‘Schumer shutdown’ is going on far too long," McColley said, referring to the GOP talking point about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said Democrats in Washington are fighting to restore cuts that will leave many Ohioans and Americans without health care. She said Republicans need to negotiate with Democrats on that issue.
At one point in the Senate floor debate over the proposed amendment, Antonio called for a point of order as Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) lambasted Democrats as being responsible for the government shutdown.
"It was turning into an opportunity for political rhetoric rather than sticking to the issue at hand about the amendment. It was going into name-calling and questions of character that are out of order as far as I'm concerned," Antonio told reporters after session.
Over in the House, Rep. LaTyna Humphrey (D-Columbus) said, as an elected lawmaker, she believes state legislators need to move.
"Why can't we deliver for Ohioans? That's our responsibility,” Humphrey said. “Now they're trying to figure it out at the federal level, and honestly, they need to quickly figure it out, but at the end of the day, we said we loved our people. We said we would serve our peopl,e and that means we need to come together to deliver.”
Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said he’s been talking to Democratic lawmakers about using private charities, community food pantries, and churches to fill the gap instead of direct payments to SNAP recipients.
“This isn’t me saying this will take care of SNAP because I don’t think it will,"Huffman said. But he said there are food pantries and churches that are providing services to low-income Ohioans already so maybe it's best to focus on those instead.
“Standing up the programs to, and again it’s not going to replace but to help us in this current storm if you will, is going to take a little bit of time, but I think that’s what we have to look at,” Huffman told reporters.
DeWine has said he doesn’t think the state can use rainy day funds to provide direct relief for SNAP recipients. A handful of other states are using their funds to fill possible money gaps or using the National Guard to distribute food.
