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The negative impacts of the ongoing federal shutdown continue to spread throughout the territory, as senators and government leaders race to fill widening financial gaps and keep the 25% of Virgin Islanders who receive food stamps from starving, by providing checks for half the benefits they would typically receive. Starting on Saturday, 42 million Americans will not receive their monthly benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — including 24,000 Virgin Islanders — and “we expect that pressure to create some kind of crash in one side or the next, either Democratic or Republican. Because when you have 42 million people saying they don’t have food, you have chaos,” according to Julio Rhymer Sr., director of the V.I. Office of Management and Budget. Rhymer was among the testifiers at Wednesday’s Senate Committee of the Whole who provided an update on the local impact of the federal shutdown. Federal lawmakers remain gridlocked and unwilling to compromise on a bill to continue funding the government, leaving the states and territories facing the potential breakdown of basic services — and leaving federal employees either furloughed or working without pay. Rhymer said he hopes the shutdown ends soon, and “my expectation is it’s not going to make it to Thanksgiving. If it passes Thanksgiving, it’s a whole other ballgame.” In the meantime, the local legislative and executive branches of government have displayed a rare moment of unity and collaboration in the face of the national crisis, and Senate President Milton Potter and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. agreed to use the “Rainy Day Fund” to provide checks for half of the benefits SNAP recipients were set to receive for November. Many SNAP recipients are elderly, children, disabled, or just “down on their luck, and this is a lifeline for many of them,” Potter said. Averil George, commissioner of the V.I. Department of Human Services, said the checks are the easiest way to get funds into the community quickly because the electronic benefit card system is not designed to distribute only half of the money that recipients get each month. They have a plan for ensuring homeless beneficiaries also receive their checks, and are asking the banks to make accommodations for individuals without identification, or those cashing benefit checks on behalf of an elderly or disabled recipient. Potter said senators will vote to approve a funding bill at today’s legislative session, and Finance Commissioner Kevin McCurdy said they’ll be ready to print checks “almost immediately.” George said that “as of this week, 10,603 households across the Virgin Islands will receive checks totaling $2,767,797.” Sen. Alma Francis Heyliger expressed concern that recipients will use the checks for “everything else but food,” and George said fraud is a fact of life even with the electronic benefit card system. “It’s the onus of the individual to do what is right,” George said, and emphasized that many children and seniors in particular cannot afford to eat without SNAP funding. “These are not abstract numbers or statistics, they are real people facing real hardship,” George said. “This is not a crisis of numbers — it is a crisis of nourishment and dignity.” The crisis is also affecting federal workers. “There are approximately one thousand federal employees in the territory that will not be paid until the federal shutdown ends. These employees account for $12.5 million dollars in wages monthly and approximately $2.5 million dollars in withholding taxes,” Rhymer said. “The current circumstances negatively affect the collection of several tax categories due to disruptions in normal spending patterns,” he added. There are also around 1,200 local government employees “that are paid or reimbursed by federal funds. As per the last fiscal year, salaries of local government employees were approximately $70 million dollars. On a biweekly basis the Government of the Virgin Islands pays $3 million dollars for employees that are reimbursed by federal funds,” Rhymer said. In addition, “the federal shutdown can sever the reimbursement lifeline that sustains our core public-health workforce and the systems behind them,” as the V.I. Department of Health has a federally supported payroll exposure totaling $431,729 per pay period, Rhymer said. “That’s just to keep people at work.” There is also $501,535 biweekly for grant-funded program operations, and combined, the “immediate exposure” is $1.9 million per month, Rhymer said. He said the government is requesting the legislature “authorize a reallocation of $100 million,” half of which would cover operating capital expenditures and the other half “for either disaster-related or operating use should the shutdown extend beyond December 1,” which would provide the government “with the flexibility necessary to respond proactively to prolonged federal disruptions and ensure continuity of services for our residents.” Sen. Franklin Johnson asked if federal employees will receive retroactive payment when the shutdown ends. “That’s the hope. Currently, based on the rhetoric that’s going back and forth, the president doesn’t really want to give any back pay, that’s a whole other story. But by law they have to be paid because they’re currently working,” Rhymer said. Sen. Carla Joseph asked which departments the 1,200 federally funded positions serve in the local government, and Rhymer said there are “a litany across the board,” including Education, Health, the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management agency, Labor, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, and Human Services. Receiving federal funds is also becoming increasingly difficult “as they furlough more employees at the federal government,” Rhymer said. “The IRS right now is actually furloughing employees constantly, and they haven’t been receiving refunds for tax credits “because nobody’s there.” McCurdy said the government has about seven days of cash on hand right now, totaling between $62 million and $68 million. Sen. Novelle Francis Jr. said hunger “makes a sane man do insane things, so I really want to thank my colleagues, thank the executive branch for coming together to bring some relief.” The poverty rate in the Virgin Islands was 22.8% as of the 2020 census, “so we know that there are some issues ahead if we’re not able to avert this situation,” Francis added. “We are in a horrible situation, so you’re hearing all the numbers being called here, but the reality is this government can’t sustain this for too long,” said Sen. Kurt Vialet. The federal shutdown could impact “our entire school lunch program,” Head Start, special educations, and “all our federal employees who are not presently being paid right now,” including federal court employees and Transportation Security Administration workers, he said. He urged SNAP recipients to budget wisely and told grocery stores that “this is not the time to increase nothing,” and “stores on this island collect $5.7 million in SNAP benefits every month” so if they can, they should reduce prices until conditions improve. Potter also urged supermarkets “to make a statement” and “make some significant donations to fund some of the not-for-profit entities” that are helping provide food assistance to those in need. “I think it would benefit them in the long run because Virgin Islanders are looking at you as a good corporate citizen.” DHS is also establishing territory-wide hotline numbers and a dedicated email address — usvisnaprelief@dhs.vi.gov — for SNAP clients who have not received their checks within seven days of mailing. Returned or undeliverable checks will be held securely at DHS district offices, and staff will reach out directly to clients to facilitate pickup. Clients may contact DHS or the Division of Family Assistance using the following hotline numbers: • St. Thomas/St. John Hotline: 340-772-7110 • St. Croix Hotline: 340-715-6909 During Wednesday’s Committee of the Whole, senators also received an update from the V.I. Water and Power Authority, and heard testimony on a request to rezone a St. Thomas property owned by the V.I. Port Authority to allow for affordable housing. The chairman of the Constitutional Convention, Usie Richards, also testified about their work to date and a request for $200,000 in additional funding. Senators are meeting today to debate and vote on the latest round of proposed legislation.
