ALSO SEE: What Closes When the Government Shuts Down

The Real Victims of Government Shutdowns Are Poor Kids, Military Vets, and Low-Paid Workers

By Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

22 January 18

Members of Congress will be fine.

he third day of the federal shutdown has already started disrupting the lives of Americans all across the country. On Monday, hundreds of thousands of nonessential government workers — from Florida to Alaska — were told to start shutting down their offices and many of the services they provide.

The shutdown doesn’t affect the politicians responsible for it. Members of Congress continue to get paid when the government shuts down. But what the 2013 shutdown showed is that some Americans really do suffer — specifically poor kids in Head Start programs, military families, janitors, security guards, and other low-wage federal contractors.

On Monday, many of the programs these groups depend on are suddenly unavailable — others are at risk of ending if members of Congress can't reach a deal soon to reopen the government. Subsidized grocery stores for military families have started closing, certain training programs for military veterans have been put on hold, and janitors at multiple federal building have been told not to report to work. So far, no Head Start centers (federally funded preschools for low-income children) have reported closures.

The Senate is expected to vote Monday on a bill that will extend government funding for a few weeks to buy more time to negotiate an immigration deal.

It's hard to grasp how many programs and services across the country rely on funding from the annual spending bill that Congress passes. In October 2013, more than 850,000 federal workers were furloughed for the 16-day shutdown, affecting services for Americans in all 50 states. Only “essential” government employees were allowed to work: anyone whose job is a matter of life and death or an urgent public-safety matter.

But we do know it hurt many Americans who depended on services funded by the appropriations bill. Here are three groups of Americans who lost, and are likely to lose again if the government shutdown continues.

Low-income families

With the federal government mired in a shutdown, the US Department of Agriculture announced that funding for food stamps and subsidized school lunches for poor children will run out by the end of February or early March, if Congress doesn’t reach a deal to reopen the government.

US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday released an outline of how the government shutdown will affect the USDA’s core nutrition programs, noting that the agency will try to keep them running as long as possible.

That includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — also known as food stamps — child nutrition programs at school, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

These programs all help poor families and students buy groceries and school lunches. For now, people who rely on these programs can still use them.

”All have funding available to operate through the month of February, and many have funds to continue operations through March, without additional appropriation,” Perdue wrote in a statement.

It’s unclear what would happen after the federal money runs out in the event of a prolonged government shutdown. Perdue suggested that state agencies, which oversee the programs, could continue to provide the services with their own money, or with any extra federal money they may have saved up.

Food stamps and other federal nutritional programs are considered mandatory programs but still require Congress to renew the funding every year. Other major mandatory programs — like Social Security and Medicare — are not affected by the shutdown. They are automatically funded each year.

When the government shut down five years ago, more than 6,300 low-income kids in six states couldn't attend their federally funded Head Start preschools. These Head Start centers, which rely largely on federal money, teach children early learning skills to help them succeed in kindergarten. They also provide kids with meals and health care services.

The centers that relied on fall funding in 2013 closed during the shutdown because they didn’t get grants to pay employees. The schools that shut down were in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

Eventually, philanthropists reopened the schools with donations to the National Head Start Association. But some didn't open their doors for nine days.

Over the weekend, several Head Start centers posted messages on social media letting parents know that they would stay open for now. They didn't mention what would happen if Congress can't reach a deal to reopen the government on Monday.

"Fortunately, we are not affected yet," read a message posted on the Facebook page of ABCD Inc., a non-profit group that runs Head Start centers in Connecticut. "The doors will be open on Monday at regular times...Stay current with what is going on and talk to your legislators. They need to hear from us!"

Military families and veterans

Perhaps no group of Americans will be affected by the shutdown as much as military veterans and families. The federal government provides a ton of services to them — everything from health care to education, housing, recreation, and subsidized groceries.

Military hospitals and clinics mostly stayed open in 2013, and veterans could still call crisis hotlines. But a lot of other important programs were suddenly out of reach. Military veterans couldn't get education counseling or job-training help. No one answered the information hotline for questions about military benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs stopped processing disability claims, adding to the backlog of about 418,000 claims.

Active-duty service members and their families also got screwed. Subsidized grocery stores on US military bases — known as commissaries — closed down for at least a week.

Relatives of service members who died couldn't immediately get money for their funerals. The Department of Defense stopped processing the $100,000 death benefit that is usually sent to grieving families within 48 hours.

Many child-care centers on military bases also closed in the 2013 shutdown, forcing working military spouses to stay home or scramble to find backup care. And soldiers and their families had to reschedule non-emergency surgeries at several military hospitals.

On Monday, some child-care centers remained open, while dozens of commissaries began shutting down their doors.

Low-wage federal contractors

ore than 850,000 federal workers who were furloughed during the 2013 shutdown eventually got repaid. But the janitors, security guards, and cafeteria servers who work in federal buildings didn't.

More than 700 janitors and security guards and 500 food-service workers were unable to work in the Washington, DC, area during the shutdown, according to the Washington Post.

The head of a local janitorial company told the Post at the time that 100 employees who cleaned the Labor and Justice Departments couldn't work. It ended up costing his company $80,000.

“We were told just to bill for the services we provided,” said Larry Westfall, vice president of R&R Janitorial Painting & Building Services. “The government did not pay us, and we could not pay our workers.”

Several workers had to take part-time jobs to pay their bills.

On Saturday, Héctor Figueroa, president of the labor union 32BJ SEIU, said the shutdown will once again affect thousands of janitors, security guards, and cafeteria workers at government building across the country.

"32BJ SEIU members diligently clean and secure federal buildings form the Statue of Liberty to the Smithsonian Museums," Figueroa wrote in a statement on Saturday. "Members like Eddie Rivera, a security officer at the Statue of Liberty, will lose his only means of support for his six children."

On Monday, the union was still trying figure out how many members were told not to report to work. If that last shutdown is any indication, this group of federal workers won't get repaid for their lost wages.