While this week has brought a lot of attention to the impending lapse in SNAP benefits, another federal program stands to be delayed.
The Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, is also on hold due to the shutdown.
That program affects some 1.5 million New Yorkers.
Kyra Hynes, who is Gov. Kathy Hochul’s director of federal affairs in Washington, D.C., said the state typically receives $280 million in federal heating assistance.
"Because the way that program runs, we cannot open the portal for those automatic issuances and payments, until the federal dollars land in in our state,” she explained.
Hynes said the governor’s office is working to come up with solutions for both SNAP and HEAP.
Phil Church, the president of the New York State Association of Counties, said counties will not be able to backfill either of these federal programs.
He said both are responsibilities that must be met at the federal level.
The Association held a briefing this week to advise county leaders what they can and cannot do during this situation.
