SNAP login window. (Photo: WEWS.)
Ohio will begin distributing partial SNAP benefits as early as Wednesday, the state announced slow Monday. This came at a time when the US Senate was scheduled to vote on a resolution to reopen the government.
The Department of Job and Family Services said all recipients who have not yet received November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as those who were approved but did not receive October wages, will begin receiving their partial November benefit this week.
ODJFS is required to reduce by 35% the maximum amount of SNAP benefits each household can receive in November and recalculate each household’s payment based on this modern amount. The department said some beneficiaries may not receive any benefits this week.
41 days after the government shutdown, the Senate finally reached an agreement to pass legislation that would provide federal workers with back pay, reverse furloughs and restore government benefits.
“We have to stop thinking it’s us against them and remember that we’re here for our country,” Rep. Dave Joyce, a Republican representing the 14th District, told us earlier during the shutdown.
The official vote is scheduled to take place slow on Monday evening.
“The military – these are men and women who are there for us 24 hours a day, many of them have young families. They need to have support,” Bob Latta, a Republican representing the U.S. 5th District, told us in October. “They don’t have it when they don’t have these paychecks.
Joyce and Latta waited for a compromise, which came on Sunday night.
However, for 1.4 million Ohioans, SNAP benefits remain in limbo.
“What I have on my card right now is from last month’s benefits,” said Janiah Gales, a Cleveland resident. “So I try to stick to them as best I can.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, who represents the 13th District, blames the GOP for the struggles Americans face.
“It’s a failure of the Republican-led Congress, the Republican-led White House and Donald Trump to come together and do the necessary work, the essential work of funding our United States government,” Sykes said in an interview last month.
The resolution does not address Sykes and the Democratic Party’s primary goal of expanding Affordable Care Act subsidies.
This means health care premiums may augment.
“I have been clear: any agreement that could secure my support must lower costs and ensure health care is accessible and affordable. Our local economy relies on health care not only for our prosperity, but also for jobs and economic growth. This agreement will not get us there and leaves thousands of my constituents without health care and spending more money on their lives than ever before. I will continue to fight to provide the help families in Ohio’s 13th District and across the country deserve,” Sykes said in a statement Monday.
Additionally, the nonpartisan research group Center for Community Solutions reports that hundreds of thousands of Ohioans will be removed from Medicaid in 2027.
“This will deprive people of health care…especially in Ohio’s 13th District, whose health care systems employ our neighbors, friends and family,” the congresswoman said.
What Democrats got in that deal was a promise to vote on the grants in the coming weeks.
But Latta doesn’t support them, citing the Affordable Care Act as too costly.
“They want $1.5 trillion and now they say the federal debt will go up to $38 trillion,” Latta said.
The follow-up resolution still needs to be officially passed by the Senate and House, but it seems likely that it will pass. It was supposed to last only until the end of January.
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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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