New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has ordered the deployment of the New Jersey National Guard to provide food assistance amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
“We have deployed the New Jersey National Guard to provide food storage and transportation assistance due to the Trump administration's failure to consistently and fully fund the Supplemental Food Assistance Program,“ he said.
“We will continue to do everything we can to support our food banks and help the hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans affected by this crisis.“
Last week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and announced an additional $65 million in dollars in food aid subsidies for state residents due to the suspension of federal food aid funding starting November 1 due to the government shutdown.
A partial shutdown of the US federal government began at midnight on October 1 due to a lack of funding after Congress failed to reach an agreement on a number of spending items, including health care, and has not been able to do so yet. Democrats and Republicans have accused each other of provoking the shutdown and prolonging it for political purposes.
Since 1977, funding for the federal government has been suspended more than 20 times due to disagreements between the administration and Congress. The longest period was 35 days - from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019 (during Trump's first presidential term).