Government assistance will be slow in coming for South Dakota ranchers who may have lost as many as 60,000 head of cattle in the weekend's blizzard that broke a century-old record. If the loss is that great, it would be
five percent of the cattle in the western third of the state. South Dakota is the nation's sixth-largest cattle producer.
The state's ranchers could apply for disaster relief under the Livestock Indemnity Program that would pay them a portion of the animal's market value. But the program is part of the 2008 farm bill extension that expired Oct 1 - the first day of the U.S. government shutdown over a budget impasse.
And with the U.S. Agriculture Department shuttered, livestock producers also are unable to file paperwork detailing their losses with USDA's Farm Service Agency.
In House Speaker John Boehner's back yard, the Ohio Association of Foodbanks is
already struggling to cover administrative costs that the U.S. Department of Agriculture usually takes care of.
OASHF isn’t alone. Across the country, food banks are grappling with reduced resources, while at the same time trying to feed a growing population of poor, hungry families. For America’s food bank infrastructure, the shutdown could not have come at a worse time.
“The hits keep coming,” Alan Briggs, executive director of the North Carolina Association for Feeding America Food Banks, told MSNBC.com. Just a few weeks ago, North Carolina food banks were still adjusting to the increased demand caused by state-level cuts to unemployment benefits and problems with the state’s food stamp benefits system.
As Barb Morrill
has reported, veterans could lose their disability pay. Laura Clawson has
pointed out that the protection of workers' rights are on hold.
These are just a few of the many troubles the tea party-led partial government shutdown is causing nationwide. For a look at an assortment of 10 more, please follow me below the fold.
• Amtrak: the intercity passenger railroad depends for about 12 percent of its operating budget and most of its capital and debt-service funding from the Feds via the Transportation Department. If payments and reimbursements that are part of that money flow continue to be cut off for weeks or longer, it could be a big problem. Amtrak may also suffer fewer ticket sales because government workers are no longer traveling.
• The North Texas Food Bank was expecting five million pounds of food to be delivered between Oct. 1 and Feb. 1. The shutdown has canceled or threatened to cancel two million pounds of that total. NTFB supplies food to pantries in 13 North Texas counties where there are already empty shelves. “The government shutdown, the SNAP cuts on November 1, low food inventory and a lack of volunteers have placed North Texan children, families, seniors and our food bank in a perfect storm scenario," according to North Texas Food Bank President and CEO Jan Pruitt.
• Craft beer makers: The obscure Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approves new breweries, recipes and labels. Its shutdown could mean big delays for the craft beer industry. That means lost business. One example: Mike Brenner wants to open a craft brewery in Milwaukee by December. As long as his application for a tasting room and labels are kept on hold, he expects to lose about $8,000 a month.
• The West Virginia National Guard still has about 75 employees sitting at home without paychecks. The cut-off in funds from Washington has meant the Guard has not been able to pick up a new helicopter to replace one in its aging fleet as well as Guard members not being able to get their flu shots.
• National Institute of Aging lab's research on cognition in older rats, with possible applications to humans, is losing ground. At an east Baltimore facility, researcher Jeff Mayse says there is a narrow window of time when the rats are old enough to show age-related brain deficits but can still perform tasks he creates for them. The rats are being fed, but if the shutdown lasts too long, they could forget what Mayse has taught them.
• Crystal City, Virginia, shop owners are standing around in empty stores. The urban neighborhood south of downtown Washington was already suffering from the moving of thousands of government employees out of the area and the federal budget sequestration. The shutdown has made things a bit "scary," according to the owner of Garden Fantasy, a clothing and accessory shop that has sold American-made products for 28 years.
• Small businesses near Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, are fearful. Trena Payton of ABN Technologies provides IT support for federal agencies, including federal courts and Lewis-McChord. "It's scary to see [the shutdown] go on one more day," she said. "I am very on edge."
• The Arkansas Agriculture Secretary has issued a press release noting that closure of U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies is hurting more than farmers. Butch Calhoun wrote: "Our office has received calls from farmers who have Farm Service Agency farm loans and cannot draw the funds they need to pay bills and other expenses associated with harvest because the FSA offices are closed." These shutdown includes funds for the Conservation Reserve Program and Environmental Quality Incentive Program. Calhoun says, "This lack of funding creates a hardship on many local businesses expecting to get paid this month."
• The Iran sanctions, which are enforced by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that has furloughed all but 11 of its 175 full-time employees, are not being monitored. "[T]he office is unable to sustain its core functions," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
• Judge and lawyers testified that shutdown is bad news. Until Oct. 15, no problem. After that, potentially big ones, according to several lawyers on a panel that testified Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee. A.J. Kramer, the federal public defender for the District of Columbia, said: "We have nothing else really we can cut." The sequester and shutdown, he said, will end up costing taxpayers more because of the higher costs of paying private counsel to represent indigent criminal defendants if public defenders were unavailable.