Connecticut will continue nutrition, winter heating relief, Medicaid and other community assistance programs over the next month or longer, despite Wednesday’s federal government shutdown that interrupts funds for these programs, Gov. Ned Lamont announced.

But the Democratic governor said it’s still premature to commit any of last fiscal year’s $2.5 billion surplus to plug holes in federal funding over the long term.

“A lot of families out there are probably pretty worried about their health care and whether they’d be able to take care of their kid if there was a real emergency, worried about food and how they’re going to put a meal on the table,” Lamont said during a late-morning press conference Wednesday in his Capitol office.

“These guys in Washington [have] got to get their act together,” he added.

The White House announced a partial shutdown just after midnight Wednesday as Congress remained gridlocked over a new federal budget.

That translates into immediate challenges for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly known as WIC — and a clock ticking down to more complications for several other federal assistance programs, Lamont said.

But WIC, which serves 52,000 infants, older children and women here, will immediately need an infusion of state cash to keep operating, about $6 million per month, Lamont said, adding that Connecticut will plug the gap for now.

“I want those young families, those moms, to know that your WIC card will continue to be good, you know, for the foreseeable future,” the governor said. “We’re making sure that the [federal] government does not take that away from you.”

But Connecticut will not tap the $2.5 billion from last fiscal year, which closed June 30, to deal with that problem. Instead, it will support WIC from the current $27.2 billion state budget, which is running more than $300 million in the black. Administration officials said Connecticut would seek federal reimbursement after the shutdown for all state funds added to the WIC program.

Clock is ticking on SNAP and winter heating assistance

The shutdown, if it persists, also would create problems for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, and on the winter heating assistance program that Connecticut runs chiefly through federal Low Income Household Energy Assistance grants.

SNAP provides about $72 million in nutrition assistance to more than 391,000 Connecticut residents monthly. But despite the shutdown closing off any new federal funding temporarily, the program has enough reserves to continue operating through October, said Lamont’s budget director, Jeffrey Beckham.

Similarly, the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program has more than $7 million in heating assistance funds left unspent from last winter. That’s enough to keep that program afloat as well until November, Beckham said.

The Lamont administration projects more than 100,375 households will need heating assistance this winter, up more than 12% from one year ago. The program serves households earning 60% or less of the statewide median income, which is $91,854 for a family of four.

Lamont’s social services commissioner, Andrea Barton Reeves, said a shutdown also will stall funds tied to Medicaid, a massive program that pumped almost $7 billion in federal funding last year into nursing homes, at-home care services, hospitals, federally qualified health clinics and health insurance for low-income households in Connecticut.

But reserves within the Connecticut’s Medicaid program should keep it functioning well into February or March of 2026, Reeves estimated. She added that federal block grants that Connecticut uses to support community action agencies — regional nonprofits that link vulnerable households with housing, energy, employment, child care and other human services — also face a funding crunch in early 2026.

Lamont: It’s too early to crack open CT’s piggy bank

The General Assembly last spring anticipated federal fiscal chaos when the GOP-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump collaborated on a massive array of cutbacks in federal assistance to states to help finance the extension of major federal tax cuts.

One of those cutbacks, involving subsidies to low-income households that buy health insurance on state exchanges — like Access Health CT here — has sparked outrage from congressional Democrats and has been one of the driving factors leading to the current budget gridlock and federal government shutdown.

The General Assembly created a special account to receive a portion of last fiscal year’s $2.5 billion surplus — the second-largest in state history — that could be used to supplant vanishing federal funds and blunt some of the pain of program cutbacks.

State legislative leaders have said they would like to see about $500 million of that surplus used for that purpose. Another $300 million would support a new program to expand affordable child care in Connecticut. And the remaining $1.7 billion would bolster the state’s rainy day fund and reduce pension debt.

But state Treasurer Erick Russell needs to inform pension analysts, who must perform periodic valuations of the program, by early November how much surplus will be deposited into retirement benefit programs.

And once surplus dollars go into Connecticut’s pension funds for state workers and municipal teachers, they cannot easily be withdrawn for other purposes.

Lamont, a fiscal moderate, has been reluctant to commit those funds to any response to federal cutbacks, preferring as much as possible to reduce the state’s considerable pension debt, which exceeded $35 billion last fiscal year.

And the governor, who will meet Friday with Democratic state legislative leaders, said it’s still too early to commit tapping last year’s huge surplus, though he didn’t rule it out.

“We’re going to know so much more in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

But labor leaders, faith groups and some of Lamont’s fellow Democrats in the General Assembly said Wednesday that it’s time for Connecticut to tap its piggy bank to help those left behind by Washington.

Leslie Blatteau, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers and steering committee chair of CT for All, said during a late morning press conference in the Legislative Office Building that state revenue programs have surged dramatically just since last June.

“We all know that those funds that have been found belong to the working people of this state, and there is no question from anybody here today what Gov. Lamont and our legislators should do with those funds,” she said.

Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, chair of the General Assembly’s Human Services Committee, said that the changes to health insurance approved by the federal government would mean that a family of four with an annual income of $128,000 could see their monthly premiums increase from $925 a month to over $4,000 a month.

“Almost 60% of your income would be going for health insurance, and there is not one family in the state that can afford that,” said Lesser.

Lesser noted that the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a budget reconciliation bill signed on July 4, would reduce Connecticut’s Medicaid funding by $13 billion over the next 10 years. He said the change would disproportionately affect low-income people and people in nursing homes. In Connecticut, 1 in 3 children are on HUSKY, the state’s Medicaid program.

Lesser also said changes to the SNAP program will make about 42,000 Connecticut residents ineligible for the program — 39,000 are citizens or permanent residents and 3,000 are legal immigrants.

“It is particularly concerning for low-income communities around the state because, when you lose SNAP benefits in your neighborhood, the people who are losing out aren’t just the recipients themselves and their family,” Lesser added. “It’s also every neighborhood grocery store, and we already have food deserts in the state, in communities across the state, and we’re going to see a lot more hunger.”

But minority Republicans in the General Assembly have opposed any effort to slow Connecticut’s efforts to shrink pension debt.

And House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, urged Lamont Wednesday to keep Connecticut’s focus on curbing debt that otherwise will burden future generations of taxpayers.

“The question is whether the governor will stand up to his own party and prevent this raid on funds that symbolize fiscal responsibility,” Candelora said. “Democrats claim this money belongs to the people, yet they want to funnel it into growing government instead of returning it to taxpayers.”

State House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who will meet Friday with Lamont and Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, to discuss response efforts, said Democrats still want to put more than $1 billion from last year’s surplus into the pension funds.

But “it’s irresponsible for state government to not be prepared [when] the drastic and unnecessary federal cuts come to fruition,” Ritter added.