Gov. Hogan Announces Food Drive, Free MTA Rides For Workers Hit By Shutdown

Gov. Larry Hogan went to BWI Marshall Airport on Thursday to thank federal workers who continue to show up to work unpaid, and to highlight steps his own administration is taking.

"This shutdown is impacting the security of our nation, it's affecting the economy of the state of Maryland and, most importantly it's affecting the lives of tens of thousands of our citizens in the state of Maryland," Hogan said. "Because while we can argue about border security, we're now talking about the security of our nation."

.@GovLarryHogan says the #shutdown will have a tremendous ‘trickle-down’ effect in tax revenue, but he says he’s more concerned about the people who are affected @wbalradio pic.twitter.com/0RYrfP0s0C — Phil Yacuboski (@WBALPhil) January 24, 2019

The partial government shutdown began after President Donald Trump insisted on $5.7 million in funding for a border wall, which he maintains is essential to border security. Bills that would have met that demand failed to pass in the lame duck session of the Republican-controlled House and Senate last month, and negotiations haven't gone very far in the weeks since Democrats officially retook the House and Nancy Pelosi became speaker.

A report out last week from the state Bureau of Revenue Estimates found the shutdown is impacting 172,000 Marylanders. For every bi-weekly paycheck affected residents aren't paid, they miss out on $778 million in lost wages. State and local coffers then lose roughly $57.5 million in income tax withholding, and $2.1 million in sales tax, according to Comptroller Peter Franchot's office.

Beyond the numbers, it's the people Hogan said he's most worried about. While he commended Transportation Security Administration workers and law enforcement agents who keep coming to work, he said they shouldn't have to go into debt to do it.

"These are real people," Hogan said. "These are people that aren't getting a paycheck."

Of the Marylanders affected, 90,000 are federal employees who are furloughed or working without pay, according to the comptroller's office. They will be paid when the shutdown ends, but the report estimated that roughly half of the state's 164,000 federal contractors are impacted by the shutdown, and are unlikely to get back pay when the shutdown is over.

To help both groups, the Maryland Department of General Services is organizing a food drive, with 15 drop-off locations in Baltimore, Annapolis and the rest of the state. Items can also be dropped off at several locations in BWI Airport. The food drive is aimed at alleviating the stress on the Maryland Food Bank and Capital Area Food Bank.

"The one thing that's universal that [food banks] have said is they're on the front lines and the demand is something they could not imagine," general services Secretary Ellington Churchill Jr. said.

At the airport, concessionaire Fraport Maryland is coordinating donated meals for TSA personnel from more than a dozen restaurants and retailers.

The Maryland Transit Administration is also offering free transit on MARC, commuter bus and local services to all federal employees currently working without pay. Hogan said his administration is imploring the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to do the same.

Only 4,037 affected workers had taken advantage of unemployment benefits as of Jan. 23, with many others, Hogan said, likely assuming they will be paid soon. However, the state's division of unemployment insurance has extended call center hours to handle an anticipated increase in unemployment claims. Claims can also be filed online.

The Maryland Department of Human Services paid out February's SNAP benefits in mid-January and recently posted information online on how the continuing shutdown will impact food assistance.

Hogan said he may have the president's ear at a dinner this weekend and said he intends to convey the shutdown's impact on the state.

"I blame everyone in Washington for the shutdown," he said.

Hogan expressed frustration that the conversation this week was less about ending the shutdown than about when and where the State of the Union would be held.

"It's a bunch of 2-year-olds," Hogan said. "Let's just figure out border security and let's get people back to work and let's have the state of the union [happen] like it always does."