State lawmakers pressure Georgia’s congressional delegation on shutdown
As the federal government steams toward its longest shutdown in history, Georgia state lawmakers in both political parties are calling on their congressional counterparts to reopen the government.
In a letter addressed to Georgia’s Republicans in the House, 80 Democratic state representatives and state senators blasted U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins for failing to negotiate, as their chamber has been out of session for several weeks. Carter and Collins are both seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
“It is unfathomable that the House of Representatives has been absent from work, as Georgians are already receiving notices about their health insurance premiums skyrocketing,” the letter reads.
Republican state lawmakers are putting the pressure back onto Democrats. In a letter addressed to U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Republican leaders in the General Assembly urged them to vote in favor of a resolution that reopens the government.
“While essential services have continued over the last month, many of our constituents working in those essential roles — including our military men and women — have been doing so without any certainty as to their pay, a status which will continue for the duration of any shutdown,” the letter read.
Congress triggered a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1 when Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach an agreement on extending tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. About 1.5 million people in Georgia get health care coverage through the ACA.
While the government remains shut down, the 1.4 million Georgians who rely on benefits from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to pay for groceries have been stuck in limbo.
Funding for the program was supposed to run out Nov. 1, but two federal judges ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue paying for SNAP using emergency reserve funds. On Monday, the Trump administration said it will send partial payments, allowing states to calculate the benefits. The administration indicated it will not tap additional funds that would provide full payments this month.
Democrats have rallied for SNAP support. In Georgia, they have called on Kemp to dip into the $14.6 billion reserve fund to make up the difference.
“We’ve been imploring them, since there’s no longer funding for these programs, to please utilize the surplus that we have,” said U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, at a news conference last week.
Warnock on Monday visited the Goodr Community Market on Edgewood, a grocery store near downtown that accepts SNAP payments for food. With tears in her eyes, Goodr CEO Jasmine Crowe-Houston told the senator, “I worry when people don’t have food. It’s an unsafe situation.”
But Kemp has so far rejected Democrats’ funding request, saying if the state picks up the cost of SNAP, it will be expected to plug other funding gaps until the federal shutdown ends. “Where does it end?” he said last week.
“If you do this for SNAP, what about early learning programs? What about TSA agents? What about the military, the National Guard?” he said.
Warnock said he knows both parties are looking to score political points from the shutdown, but it should be focused on who is hurting.
“The people who live in this neighborhood, who sit in the pews of my church, aren’t thinking about the politicians. They’re thinking about their families,” he said. “What’s at stake right now is that we have some 1.2 million Georgians who are opening up the (ACA) portal, and they’re seeing that their health care costs have doubled on average. For some, it has tripled and quadrupled.”
For Karen Stewart, the shutdown needs to end as soon as possible. The Atlanta resident said she’s been cutting back on other expenses to make ends meet.
“They need to understand that people are hurting. They need to try to come to some agreement as quickly as possible because a whole lot of people are hurting, even worse than I am,” she said.
About the Author
Michelle Baruchman covers the Georgia House of Representatives and statewide issues. She is a politics news and enterprise reporter covering statewide political stories.
