Moore Vows To Keep Some Federal Programs In Maryland Operating – For Now

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

October 2, 2025

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) vowed Wednesday to continue funding some federal programs as a federal government shutdown began with no end in sight.

Day one of the shutdown also included the usual partisan finger-pointing and tough talk. Moore, in a morning news conference that included state and federal officials, called the shutdown avoidable and unnecessary and said it will directly hurt Marylanders.

“The president of the United States, the chief executive of this country, has a simple responsibility to run a functioning government, not to shut it down,” Moore said. “We have seen that the president has failed in that responsibility and has abandoned his duty to the states and his duty to the people.

“Leaders at the highest levels of government and inside the White House itself are looking at each and every one of us, all 50 states, and saying, you’re now on your own,” he said.

In response, Moore said state agencies will “employ contingency plans to make sure that federal programs continue to operate” in Maryland.

“For now, we will ensure that state employees supported with federal funding continue to get paid for as long as possible,” Moore said. “Federal programs administered by the state will continue to support working families through Medicaid, SNAP [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families]. We will also provide greater flexibility to Head Start programs and ensure that veterans maintain access to essential resources.”

Additionally, Moore said he would work to shield furloughed federal workers from evictions, foreclosure, and utility shutoffs. The governor sent letters to the judiciary and utility companies “reminding them of their statutory legal protections for federal, state and local government employees who are not receiving a paycheck or are at risk of eviction or foreclosure.”

Moore said he also asked banks and other financial institutions to work with Maryland residents affected by the shutdown.

Federal employment and contracting make up a sizable portion of the economy — and of tax revenue — in Maryland.

Federal lawmakers divided along party lines Tuesday: Republicans pushed for a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded through Nov. 21, while Democrats want to restore cuts to Medicaid and to insurance subsidies that are part of the Affordable Care Act. Those funds were cut in July as part of Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” tax-cut package.

“This is not normal,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore). “We cannot stand here and think that the norms and institutions that this country has been built on can be shattered by one administration. This is not normal.”

Nationally, and in Maryland, each side is blaming the other for the shutdown.

“Governor Moore would rather posture on cable news and tweet about partisan battles than deal with the reality that Maryland is uniquely vulnerable in a shutdown,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. (R-Upper Shore) said in a statement Wednesday.

“Every Continuing Resolution in modern history has required bipartisan cooperation to keep the government open,” Hershey said of the stopgap budget resolution often used to keep government open temporarily. “Instead, Democrats wanted to use this CR to jam through unrelated health care policy. That’s reckless.”

Hershey called on Moore to demand that Democrats in Washington pass the continuing resolution passed in September by the House. That measure has stalled in the Senate.

“The truth is our economy is already lagging behind our neighbors, and Moore’s answer has been to double down on our dependence on federal spending,” Hershey said. “That’s a dangerous strategy — and Marylanders are the ones who will pay the price when Washington stumbles.”

Maryland is home to five dozen federal facilities. About 260,000 residents are employed by the federal government and there are roughly 200,000 federal contractors in the state.

The governor and others expressed concerns about the loss of federal safety net programs.

“There is not a single state in the country that has the budget to be able to fully cover the supports that should be coming from the federal government, but Maryland is going to do its part and do everything in our power to be able to make sure that we are supporting programs like Medicaid,” Moore told reporters Wednesday.

Administration officials were unable to say Wednesday exactly where funding would come from to keep that pledge, and how long it might last.

“We’re not tapping into the rainy day fund to do so, but we are going to make sure we’re doing everything in our power, for as long as we can, to make up for the fact that the federal government has just left every single state on their own,” Moore said.

“We’re going to continually evaluate how long we can go,” he said.

The last shutdown was in 2018, sparked by a dispute between Congress and President Donald Trump. The shutdown was the longest in history, lasting 35 days, ending in January of 2019.

When the government reopened, federal employees returned to work and received back pay. But this closure has the potential to be different from past shutdowns.

Trump is threatening to use the event to lay off federal workers en masse. And while the federal government reimbursed states for the costs of federal programs in the past, Moore administration officials cautioned that the federal government has not provided official guidance on reimbursement this time.

Those officials said if federal agencies advise the state that reimbursements will not be made, it “may impact the state’s posture” on continuing to fund programs during the shutdown.

In a call with reporters, administration officials said they were relying on “hope and trust” for those future reimbursements.