QuickTake:

Local agencies are making plans to weather the uncertainty that comes with a government closure. Health and nutritional services in the region should continue uninterrupted for the foreseeable future, officials said.

The U.S. government is racing toward a shutdown that will affect federal workers and agencies, creating uncertainty about how long Congress and President Donald Trump will spar as the federal system grinds to a standstill.

In Lane County, officials are preparing for a shutdown with an eye toward preserving services and planning ahead. Across the county, many vital services will continue for the foreseeable future if a shutdown starts Oct. 1 as political observers expect.

The shutdown also reaches systems outside the federal government that rely upon federal funding. For example, Lane County Health and Human Services runs a system of community clinics that serve about 30,000 residents on Medicaid, a federally-funded program for low-income people that also gets state matching funds. 

Eve Gray, director of Lane County Health and Human Services, briefed county commissioners Tuesday, Sept. 30, about the looming shutdown.

The agency anticipates it will not be able to draw funds as usual during a shutdown, Gray told commissioners. However, the county was able to identify enough allowable expenditures for its clinics and draw the funding necessary to maintain cash flow during a shutdown, Gray said.

The county also does not anticipate any changes to WIC, a program that provides food assistance to low-income households with pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding women, infants and children under 5. It’s based on income: A household of three people that makes $49,303 or less annually can qualify.

“We do not anticipate any changes to WIC services and certainly would notify the community if that were to occur,” Gray said.

The Oregon Health Authority, in a separate statement, said the WIC program as well as Medicaid, which provides health care for about one in three county residents, will continue during the shutdown.

“For now, (Oregon Health Authority) does not expect any immediate disruptions to health coverage through Medicaid or to core public health funding for programs including WIC,” the agency said in a statement.

Health authority officials expect the agency to continue receiving federal Medicaid reimbursements during a shutdown, though an extended shutdown could lead to delays.

 ”If the federal government shutdown lasts into late October, (Oregon Health Authority) will assess the impact and communicate out to local public health partners and WIC program recipients,” the agency said.

The last federal shutdown lasted 35 days, from Dec. 22, 2018 to Jan. 25, 2019. Commissioner Heather Buch said a shutdown of that length is a concern. 

“It’s definitely on my mind because this puts a lot of people in a very challenging spot,” Buch said.

Other federal services

Other programs will continue in the foreseeable future. The federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides food benefits to low-income Oregonians – more than one in six people in the state.

There will be “no impact to services in October,” said Jake Sunderland, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services, which runs the program.

The nearly 700 families in the region who rely on Head Start of Lane County for services for preschool children can still access the program during the shutdown. Head Start is a federal program that generally helps children from birth to age 5 from low-income families get ready for school.

The nonprofit’s program receives federal and state funding and its workers are not federal employees, said Charleen Strauch, the organization’s executive director. 

Head Start can tap into the state grant it receives if necessary to pay its employees and bills, Strauch said.

Still, the looming shutdown is stressful for families and employees, Strauch said.

“I just feel for our families right now, with a lot of this uncertainty that’s still kind of lingering out and about,” she said. “Head Start stays steadfast with providing services, and will continue to provide the services to the families that desperately need it. And lucky for us, we have staff very dedicated to making that happen, and we just appreciate all the support that’s out there.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.