North Dakota Senator John Hoeven says he’s working to keep critical farm programs and federal nutrition assistance funded during the government shutdown. Using Section 32 and school nutrition funds, programs like WIC and SNAP will operate through October, but funding beyond that is uncertain. “Those are mandatory programs, but we have to appropriate the money to fund them, and we can’t do that when the government is shut down.” Hoeven adds that farm support programs are stalled. The Market Facilitation Program, ready to assist farmers, cannot move forward while the shutdown continues. “We have that ready to go, but that’s being held up by the shutdown as well. That would provide some assistance to our farmers as a bridge to get to where they’re going to have more sales.”
