"Right as we were about to start the press conference, I've learned that the federal government has now provided the guidance we need to start our state work on providing full benefits under the SNAP program," Beshear said during his Team Kentucky briefing.
Beshear said the timing of the news left his office with little in the way of details regarding when normal services will resume, but he signaled state employees will work to restart full SNAP benefits as soon as possible and "certainly" by the end of the month.
But the conclusion of the 43-day long impasse in Washington also means other programs can begin receiving funds.
"I don't know exactly how the timing will work. TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), we had provided state funding for the period of time of the shutdown. We expect to get reimbursement of that, but now we will have the federal portion coming in," the governor explained. "Head Start was seeing challenges, but one of the most important parts is we have about 20,000-30,000 federal employees in Kentucky. They've been going without a paycheck at all."
Beshear also took time during the weekly update to honor state employees who worked overnight shifts to process and submit partial SNAP benefits during the shutdown — saying Kentucky was the first, or one of the first, to process those benefits.