(The Center Square) – Ohioans can plan on receiving full SNAP benefits in Ohio, but when the money will come is still up in the air.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced it received new federal guidance following votes to reopen the federal government.
The new guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Services said full food benefits will come this month. Earlier this week, following previous instructions from the USDA, the state began processing partial payments.
“The latest FNS guidance instructs ODJFS to take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly,” Job and Family Services announced on its website. “To comply, Ohio will calculate the full benefit households would have received in November and deduct the partial amount.”
Overall, about 1.4 million people in Ohio receive SNAP benefits of about $264 million a month.
In the midst of the government shutdown, Gov. Mike DeWine last week signed an emergency order releasing $25 million in state taxpayer funds for food, with $7 million heading to local food banks.
DeWine said that money has been transferred to regional food banks in eight different areas of the state – Cleveland, Toledo, north central Ohio, central Ohio, the Akron-Canton area, Cincinnati and the Dayton area.
DeWine also approved giving $18 million in emergency relief benefits to more than 63,000 people.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to reopen and fund the federal government Wednesday night, ending the longest government shutdown in American history.
President Donald Trump almost immediately signed the bill into law, capping off 43 days that saw millions of federal workers either furloughed or working without pay, billions in GDP lost, SNAP payments halted, and mass flight delays across the country.
The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Senate Democrats filibustered Republicans’ original seven-week continuing resolution to keep the government open and funded. They continued to do so – 14 consecutive times – over demands that any funding deal also extend a pandemic-era expansion of the Obamacare Premium Tax Credit.
