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In a statement made during the holiday weekend, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said: "It may be that the federal government is running out of funds, but that will not release the government. USDA's responsibilities in protecting life and property provide. "
According to the statement, 61% of Agriculture Ministry employees would continue to work during the first week of the closure, but their numbers would decrease as the closure would last a long time.
Some of the agency offices that will be hardest hit by the closure include the Food and Nutrition Services Office which oversees the Supplementary Nutrition Program for Children (SNAP) and the Special Program Additional Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). At the end of the fifth day of the stoppage, the numbers will be reduced by 95%.
As of Tuesday, the ministry's website posted a message stating: "Due to an interruption of federal funding, this USDA website will not be actively updated Once funding is restored, online operations will continue. "
Eligible households will continue to receive monthly SNAP benefits for January. But other national nutrition programs, such as the Commodity Supplementary Feed Program, WIC and the Indian Reserve Food Distribution Program, will only be operational on the basis of available resources. Additional federal funds and products will not be provided during the closing.
Children's nutrition programs, including school lunches, school lunches, children's and adults' meals, summer meals and specialty milk will continue until February.
The Department of Agriculture will maintain the inspection services of meat, poultry and processed eggs. Inspections of food imports and exports will also continue for the duration of the closure.
The end of the closure did not seem to be in sight on Tuesday, when President Trump did not care about the budget. After a call to US troops, the president said, "I can not tell you when the government will be open.I can tell you that it will not be until you have a wall, a fence, all they would like to call it. "
Protecting and Improving the Well-being of Americans
The Department of Health and Human Services s & # 39; expects nearly 8,000 federal employees will not return to work on Wednesday as the closure continues. This number equals about one-quarter of the department's employees.
The bulk of the ministry is funded through the fiscal year, and the positions and divisions put on leave are funded through Agriculture and Interior credits.
For the Department of Health and Social Services, Among the Activities to be pursued include Indian health services clinics, the Agency's efforts for the register of toxic substances and diseases and specific activities under the Food and Drug Administration, including: emergencies and management of high-risk recalls.
The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Alex Azar, assured the country that the department's public health missions were being maintained, despite the holidays and the closure.
"Thousands of my @HHSGov colleagues work regularly on weekends and holidays, and many of them are responsible for solving the problems associated with closing the house in order to fulfill our mission of protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of all Americans.I am grateful to them for their commitment & proud to be their colleague, "said Azar on Twitter.
According to the department, the FDA's missions are vital to public health, such as monitoring and managing outbreaks of foodborne illness and influenza, supporting high risks. food recalls and medical products, prosecution of criminal investigations and certain civil cases when public health may be threatened, filtering of food products and medical products imported into the United States and resolution of other critical public health problems until closure.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner of the FDA, expressed his gratitude to FDA employees who continued to work until closing. "I am so proud to lead an agency headed by so many dedicated people, working for a vacation and a government block, to honor their commitment to the United States," Gottlieb said on Twitter.
By Tuesday night, the agency's website posted a message titled "FDA Lapse in Funding" at the top of its home page. The message states, in part, that "Agency operations continue to be within legal limits, such as the activities required to address imminent threats to the safety of human lives and the activities funded by private equity funds. Use reported ".
According to the HHS, approximately 41% of FDA staff members would be on leave as of Wednesday, December 26th.
The ministry said that about 65% of the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry would not come back. work that day either.
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