Describing the federal government's housing agency as "basically unstaffed" and warning that school lunch funding is running out, a leading anti-poverty agency in the Greater Boston area called on federal officials to end the nearly three-week-old federal government shutdown.
Many grocery stores across the nation are reporting that benefit cards issued to food assistance recipients are not being accepted in their online systems, according to Action for Boston Community Development, and "the shutdown also means that no tax refunds will be made" so families that file early to take advantage of tax credits "have nowhere to turn."
"We join with our representatives in Congress - in the Senate and the House - who call for total restoration of government funding while differences are discussed separately," ABCD President John Drew said in a statement Tuesday. "If this shutdown continues, hunger in America will be back big-time. You will have millions of people unable to buy the food they need to survive. They also won't have access to the hard-earned tax credits they count on to pay for rent, medicine, food and heat at this time of year. Landlords who can't collect rent subsidies may evict them for market-rate renters."
State Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford on Tuesday urged Gov. Charlie Baker, who during his tenure has not often delved into federal debates, to work with his GOP colleagues in Washington on an agreement that could reopen government agencies.
"Charlie Baker wants us to believe that he stands up to Donald Trump when it matters for the people of Massachusetts," Bickford said. "But as the ongoing government shutdown enters its 18th day - impacting more than 7,000 workers here in Massachusetts - the Governor has failed call out the President for holding the livelihoods of federal workers hostage in pursuit of a wall that will do nothing to make our country safer."
President Donald Trump, whose insistence on funding for a southern border wall is at the center of the government shutdown debate, is scheduled to address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday at 9 p.m.
