The 40 million or so people who receive food stamps will still receive the benefit for January, according to the Agriculture Department, which administers the program. And other programs focused on child nutrition, including school lunch and breakfast programs, will continue operating into February, the department said.
Food assistance programs for women, children and infants and for people on Native American reservations can continue to operate at the state and local level, depending on what funding remains, but federal funding for those programs is suspended until the shutdown ends, the department said.
[Here’s how the shutdown leaves food, medicine and pay in doubt for Native Americans.]
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs
Fear not, older Americans: The Social Security checks are still coming. (And the Postal Service will still deliver them.
That’s because the Social Security Administration received funding for the 2019 fiscal year back in September, according to Mark Hinkle, an agency spokesman.
“Social Security services and offices will remain fully operational, and Social Security benefits will be paid on time,” he said in an emailed statement.
Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits are similarly unaffected.
[Fact Check: President Trump has told a number of falsehoods about the shutdown.]
Law enforcement and the judiciary
Tens of thousands of law enforcement personnel are among those working without pay.
That includes workers at the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and more.
But the shutdown has nonetheless affected the criminal justice system. Federal court proceedings have slowed as government lawyers ask for delays and federal district courts remain open though their funding remains in doubt.
Already backlogged, most immigration courts are closed because of the shutdown, leading to long delays in deportations.
“That is the irony of this shutdown,” Judge Amiena Khan, the executive vice president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, the judges’ union, told The Times. “The impact is most acutely felt in immigration courts and proceedings where cases will not be going forward.”
[How the shutdown could turn a day in court into a four-year wait.]
Criminal investigations
The shutdown has had mixed effects on government investigations.
F.B.I. investigations will continue, according to the Justice Department’s shutdown plan, because “all operations of the F.B.I. are directed toward national security and investigations of violations of law involving protection of life and property.”
The office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will also continue its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election because it does not rely on congressional action for funding.
At the Securities and Exchange Commission, though, all but 6 percent of the agency’s approximately 4,400 employees have been sent home, according to a contingency plan. That limited staff will handle emergency enforcement, but much investigative work is not being done.