WASHINGTON – Cities are drawing down their own budget funds to close widening funding gaps caused by the continuing partial federal government shutdown, mayors attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter conference here said Wednesday.
The shutdown’s economic impact is increasing as it moves into a second month because of an impasse over President Trump's proposal to fund a wall along the country's southern border. With the U.S. Senate poised to vote Thursday on competing plans to reopen the government, mayors said they've stepped in to help fund everything from housing loans to airport security for the Super Bowl.
“We are all struggling to make sure that the quality of life of our residents isn’t disrupted,” District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We, perhaps more than anybody else, are in the belly of the beast of this shutdown.”
Bowser has announced a $9 million temporary loan program administered by the D.C. Housing Finance Agency to help the city’s 70,000 federal workers who also are homeowners to pay their mortgages. Many of those furloughed workers face the prospect of missing a second paycheck at the end of this week.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told reporters Wednesday she is hoping to work with the Transportation Security Administration on plans for handling the exodus of an expected 120,000 travelers who are expected to converge on Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport the day after the Feb. 3 Superbowl. The day has been dubbed mass exodus Monday.
“Right now security wise we are getting support from the TSA,” Bottoms said. “They have flown in additional agents.”
The airport plans to open TSA lines at 3 a.m. that day.
In the meantime, Bottoms said her city is extending loans to furloughed TSA agents.
Mayor Paul Soglin of Madison, Wisconsin, said federal grant applications for areas ranging from law enforcement to transportation are being delayed.
Mayors said they also have concerns about food security payments the federal SNAP program formerly known as food stamps and payments by the Women Infants and Children.
Several mayors said they will use city funds to replace federal funds for public housing programs that have been suspended by the shutdown.
Soglin said he’s concerned about first-time homeowner applicants who have apartment leases that are ending but they are unable to gain access to the FHA loan program. “They cannot close,” he said.
U.S. Conference of Mayors President Steve Benjamin said cities need to get creative to deal with the impact of the federal shutdown on their citizens. Benjamin said his own city of Columbia, S.C. has looked at deferring payments on water bills for residents impacted by the shutdown.
Benjamin said research the mayors conference has worked on with the Aspen Institute shows that the majority of families in America suffer from significant income volatility.
“The average family cannot absorb an unexpected $400 bill,” he said. “So imagine compounding that with missing two paychecks and it can be devastating.”
