After the longest shutdown in its 249-year history the US government officially re-opened on Wednesday when its president signed a bill allowing funding until January 30 next year.
While this would certainly appear to be only a temporary easing of the situation it does mean that all government services should be getting back to business and that’s good news for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and its 42 million recipients.
As we highlighted last week, Maryland had made provisions to cover the loss of federal funding and had allocated $62 million to cover the shortfall. Those payments were being made although anecdotal evidence shows that payments were only a small portion of the usual allocation that Marylanders had been receiving.
That should no longer be the case, but this being a massive undertaking across the country, it is expected that there will be delays in getting those funds out to everyone, and there are concerns that beneficiaries might not see a return to the full SNAP amount. It’s been estimated that it may be a week or more yet before some kind of order is resumed.
Again, if you need to apply you can do so here: Maryland Benefits Programs & Services Portal
For information on food banks, you can go here: 211 Maryland | MD Health And Human Services | Get Help