It’s now been four weeks since the federal government shut down over Congress’s inability to pass a temporary spending bill.
Jeff Jones, Associate Dean of Missouri State University’s Business school, told Missourinet that the federal government touches numerous points of the state’s economy:
“You know, whether it be, ‘oh, I need to go do this, or I want to visit a National Park,’ or whatever, and when people encounter (that) those services aren’t available, I think it probably just raises awareness of exactly the overall impact of the federal government,” Jones said.
He specifically addressed Missouri’s agriculture industry.
“When it comes to say, you know, federal government aid related to different types of programs, whether it be crops, whether it be drought assistance — I think it will potentially slow benefits that might be paid to farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn told Missourinet earlier this month that ARC and PLC assistance payments have already been delayed due to the government shutdown.
As for military personnel and their families at Fort Leonard Wood, Whiteman Air Force Base, and Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, Jones said they will soon feel the effects of the shutdown.
“My understanding has been that, at least for the last pay cycle, members of the military have been able to receive their, kind of, normal paycheck,” he said. “I don’t know if that will happen here at the end of the month.”
A bill that would have paid America’s service members on October 31st failed to pass the U.S. Senate late last week. Multiple media reports say an anonymous donor gave $130 million to the federal government to cover military salaries, but it’s not known if it will be enough for everybody.
SNAP recipients, meanwhile, will likely have to switch from grocery stores to food banks, according to Jones.
“You know, I think with SNAP benefits, for example, essentially 100% of that gets spent on groceries, right?” he said. “That’s going to be very unfortunate for those folks because they may not necessarily have income from another source to be able to, to buy food and things like that.”
Federal funding for SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, runs out on Saturday. According to a press release from Gov. Mike Kehoe, more than 667,000 Missourians will lose SNAP benefits on Saturday unless funding is renewed.
Among the temporary measures enacted by the Trump Administration was using revenues from tariffs to fund WIC payments to low-income women with children.
“I’m not an expert in the overall amount of tariff revenue that is being generated and collected relative to the operating budget of different federal entities, but I don’t see it again as being a permanent funding solution for a lot of these activities,” said Jones.
He added that another four weeks of the government being shut down could have a “dampening” effect and put Missouri and the rest of the nation into a “K-shaped” economy.
“(That’s) where folks at the top are essentially feeling very little impact, but those kind of at the middle and the bottom are really feeling the brunt of the economic slowdown,” Jones said.
Gov. Kehoe’s press release also said that Missouri’s Gross State Product is estimated to drop by $232 million each week the shutdown continues.
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