Many government services will be suspended but other essential services will continue under the state government shutdown that began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Gov. Paul LePage declared a civil emergency late Friday night, a procedural step that gives him the authority to designate emergency government functions that should continue during a shutdown.

The administration also released an extensive list of programs and services that will remain in operation. LePage said he continues to review the situation, and the list could be revised as circumstances change.

Here are the services that will continue, as of Saturday morning:

Department of Health & Human Services

• TANF, SNAP and MaineCare payments will be made.

• The Office of MaineCare Services will execute the scheduled July 5 MaineCare cycle process, ensuring there is no disruption to claims payments in Maine’s Medicaid program.

• The Office of Child and Family Services will execute the scheduled July 5 child care subsidy and child welfare payments, ensuring there is no disruption to Maine’s child care and child welfare programs.

• The Office for Family Independence will make July payments for the TANF and SNAP programs. Program beneficiaries have access to their respective benefits as previously scheduled. The Office for Family Independence would continue to accept and make eligibility determinations for MaineCare, TANF and SNAP.

• The Office of Child and Family Services will remain operational. Central Intake will be staffed on a 24/7 basis to receive calls related to child abuse and neglect and respond to the needs of children in foster care and adults under public guardianship or conservationship. Adult and Children Emergency Services (ACES) will accept referrals for Adult Protective Services regarding abuse, neglect or exploitation. Caseworkers will continue working to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect and will provide safe care and shelter for children in the state’s legal protective custody.

• DHHS will continue to receive and process child support payments during any shutdown period.

• The Office of Aging and Disability Services will continue to operate the Crisis Prevention and Intervention Team. Referrals for Adult Protectives Services will be received by Adult and Children Emergency Services (ACES). This process is standard procedure as followed after-hours and weekends during non-shutdown periods.

• The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to operate the Health and Environmental Testing Lab, and the CDC will function on a continuity of operations plan that will deploy necessary resources should emergency situations arise, such as those related to public health, infectious disease or foodborne illness. The WIC program will continue to function.

• The Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services will staff four emergency staff members to include one rapid responder for mental health and substance abuse crisis statewide; a data analyst to oversee the Prescription Monitoring Program; a crisis services manager for youth and adult services; and a substance abuse program specialist to handle placement of individuals in the case of an emergency.

• Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center and Riverview Psychiatric Center will remain fully staffed and operational.

Department of Labor

Unemployment benefits

Limited unemployment benefit services would be provided on a limited, emergency basis. The guidance below is for claims filed the week of July 2–8; the Department of Labor will issue additional guidance if such a shutdown lasts longer than a week.

Unemployment: filing claims

• The Unemployment Customer Service Claims Centers would be closed, and customer service representatives would not be available during the shutdown.

• All initial claims for benefits, meaning that they have never filed for unemployment benefits in Maine or have not filed for unemployment in the previous 12 months, must be filed via the website at file4UI.com or maine.gov/labor/unemployment.

• Claimants needing to reopen a benefit year, must also file online at file4UI.com or maine.gov/labor/unemployment.

• Claimants currently filing for unemployment benefits can either use the automated telephone service at 1-800-593-7660 or the website to file a continued claim.

• The department advises claimants to be as accurate as possible in answering the questions when filing. Claims with missing information or errors will be significantly delayed and claimants may need to speak to a customer service representative to resolve their specific issue when State government offices reopen.

• If claimants have to speak to a customer service representative after State government reopens, expect long wait times on the phones. The department anticipates high call volumes when State offices reopen.

• All claimants must still register on the Maine JobLink at maine.gov/joblink . However, if claimants cannot access their older account, they will need to wait until the CareerCenters reopen to have the JobLink account reactivated. This will not affect the processing of the unemployment claim during the shutdown, although the claim could be delayed for other reasons.

Unemployment: claims and payment processing

• All claims filed prior to 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 29, are anticipated to be processed as usual on June 30. • All pending claims filed after 5 p.m. on June 29, if there is no budget in place as of 5 p.m. on June 30, will not be processed until July 6 in the case the State still lacks a budget on July 5.

• In the event a budget is in place by Sunday, July 2, all pending claims through 5 p.m. on July 3 will be processed on July 5, due to the July 4 holiday. Processing of claims will then proceed as usual.

• Use file4ui.com to check the status of your claim once State offices reopen to avoid calling the department. We anticipate long wait times on the phones.

Maine JobLink – maine.gov/joblink

• Maine JobLink will be available and operational for both employers and job seekers to use at http://www.maine.gov/joblink.

Maine Emergency Management Agency

• Maine Emergency Management Agency staff will be called in if a disaster occurs during the shutdown. The agency’s Emergency Operations Center will be staffed at monitoring levels.

Law enforcement / First responders, including

• Department of Public Safety: State Police, Capitol Police, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Fire Marshal

• Inland Fisheries & Wildlife: Maine Warden Service

• Department of Marine Resources: Marine Patrol and biotoxin staff involved in monitoring for red tide.

• Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry: Forest Protection

• Maine National Guard facilities will remain staffed and secure

Department of Corrections

• All correctional facilities will remain operational

Bureau of Veterans’ Services

• The Bureau of Veterans’ Services will offer limited staffing to ensure that any time-sensitive veterans’ claims are processed in a timely manner.

• The Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery System will provide staffing at each cemetery to ensure burials continue uninterrupted.

State Parks, including

• All State Parks managed by the Bureau of Parks and Lands in the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry

• Baxter State Park

• Maine Wildlife Park, Swan Island, managed by Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

Inland Fisheries & Wildlife

In addition to the Maine Warden Service, these facilities/programs will remain open with reduced staffing, as appropriate:

• Hatchery

• Moose Collaring Project – Mortality Response

• Online licensing

Department of Environmental Protection

• The Department will continue responses to environmental cleanup and emergencies.

• Environmental emergency response to oil and hazardous materials releases. Call 800-452-4664.

• DEP’s Oil and Hazardous Materials Responders will be on-call, 24/7 to respond to reports of potentially imminent environmental threats.

• High ozone alerts will be issued, if necessary.

Department of Transportation

• Maine State Ferry Service

• Emergency Traffic Incident Management Center Representatives

• Emergency Bridge Operators

• Emergency Crew Operations/Safety Response

• Emergency Disaster Response

• Construction-related personnel will continue on a limited basis

Department of Administrative and Financial Services

• Limited operations to support emergency functions throughout state government, including the Office of Information Technology and other state operating functions.

• Maine Revenue Services will continue revenue collection.

 

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