The federal government shutdown’s most immediate threats in Connecticut are assistance for food and heating your home, state leaders said on Wednesday.

Gov. Ned Lamont said that Connecticut is in good shape through the end of this month. But after that, critical programs will start running out of money – and may require lawmakers to tap into surplus budget funds.

Just seven letters – WIC and SNAP – feed nearly half a million Connecticut families. But thanks to the federal government shutdown, much of the money for the Women, Infants, and Children program, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is now cut off.

“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 told reporters. “We’ve been planning for this for a while. It’s not our first rodeo.”

Lamont said that Connecticut can weather a short-term shutdown. Through the end of this month, the state budget will cover WIC expenses, while reserve funds will cover SNAP and LIHEAP home heating assistance.

“We always hold back a carryover of some percentage of the funds that we are provided for the previous year because it’s not uncommon for the LIHEAP program to have a delay in actually providing those benefits to us,” said Department of Social Services Commissioner Andrea Barton Reeves. "If we're past October, then obviously we'll have to make a different determination as to whether or not and how people will get heating assistance."

WIC and SNAP cost a combined $78 million per month in Connecticut.

But if the shutdown drags into November, Lamont said that state lawmakers may have to divert budget surplus money that is supposed to pay down pensions.

“There are probably going to be some holes in the budget, and we’re probably going to have to have a special session between now and Nov. 1,” Lamont said. “If [the feds] want to stop answering the phone, I can’t answer all the phones for them. If they want stop inspecting hospitals and roads, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that continues for the near term.”

Lawmakers were already planning on going into special session later this month to vote on housing legislation.

An even longer shutdown could require even more drastic action. By the end of this year, money for free and discounted school lunches will dry up, the State Department of Education estimated. HUSKY Medicaid funds should last through the first quarter of 2026, Reeves said.

Connecticut has 10,247 federal employees, according to government records. Many are considered “essential” and will have to keep working without pay. That includes VA clinicians, the Naval base in Groton, TSA airport screeners, air traffic controllers, most IRS workers and most Social Security Administration.

There are also approximately 1,300 state employees whose salaries are funded by the federal budget. Lamont said Wednesday that all of them will get paid during the shutdown.

"These are folks that inspect bridges and make sure they’re safe. They go to our hospitals and make sure they’re doing their job," the governor said. "We’re going to be able to manage that."

During the last government shutdown in 2018-19, which lasted 35 days, the state partnered with banks to provide no-interest loans to federal workers who were impacted. The governor said he would consider a similar program, but this year it would be riskier for banks, since President Donald Trump has threatened to permanently fire furloughed workers.