The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Ohio House Democrats have introduced a bill that would use the state’s Rainy Day Fund in the event that a federal government shutdown causes gaps in food assistance programs.
“All these programs provide essential benefits for Ohioans, and we just can not afford to lose them, whatever happens in DC,” state Rep. Adam Miller, D-Columbus, told the Ohio House Families and Aging Committee on Tuesday.
House Bill 288 would use whatever funds are needed from the Budget Stabilization Fund (the official name for the Rainy Day Fund) to shore up the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), in the event of a government shutdown caused by the failure of U.S. Congress to pass a spending bill on time.
As of Jan. 8, 2024, the most recent total reported by the state’s Office of Budget and Management, the Rainy Day Fund had more than $3.7 billion in it. The office said the fund is a “reserve balance that is set aside during good economic times to protect the state budget from cyclical changes in revenues and expenses that may occur during poor economic times.”
Data from the OBM shows the fund is at its highest levels since 1998.
Miller praised the fund for being “robust” and “one of the largest surpluses in the country.”
Under the bill – which is co-sponsored by state Rep. Latyna M. Humphrey, D-Columbus – after a lapse in federal funding ends (with the funding of an appropriations bill), the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Department of Health would be required to “certify the amount received in federal reimbursement for the programs,” according to an analysis by the Legislative Service Commission.
Ohio taxpayers would only be on the hook for “lost interest” to the Rainy Day Fund, according to Miller.
Miller said this would give security to nearly 2 million Ohioans who use the food aid provided through the federal programs. That included 13% of the state population on SNAP as reported in Sept. 2021, and more than 176,000 women, infants and children are currently enrolled in Ohio’s WIC program.
Though the government has managed to avoid a shutdown in recent years, Congress has been living on continuing resolutions, a temporary aversion of government shutdown that pushes a permanent solution down the road for U.S. legislators.
That trend has concerned those who oversee and handle SNAP programs throughout the state, who were awaiting answers in February as another continuing resolution was on the table on Capitol Hill.
The Ohio Association of Foodbanks’ director of nutrition policy and programs, Hope Lane-Gavin, said at the time that food banks “can not afford to absorb the loss in WIC,” as the state’s food banks continue to be overwhelmed by need outside of federal funding losses.
The Ohio Department of Health at that time acknowledge the uncertainty about “funding shortages in the future,” even as a spokesperson said the program was fully funded “through the federal government’s continuing resolutions.”
The U.S. Senate passed, and President Joe Biden signed, a spending bill in March, hours after the deadline when funding would have stopped for federal agencies. This action moves a potential government shutdown on to the fall.
The Democratic bill will have to make headway with Republican legislators to have any chance at progress in the state’s Republican supermajority House and Senate.
