Shutdown Watch: ‘Dark Money’ Nonprofits Take Sides in Budget Fight

The federal government shutdown has had a deep impact on nonprofits across the country. It was only a matter of time before nonprofits started trying to have an impact on the shutdown—specifically, the “dark money” groups that have become major vehicles for political advocacy.

Public Notice, a social-welfare organization that has received millions of dollars from entities associated with libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch, has its name on a series of spoof advertisements blasting government spending and Obamacare, according to the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks political spending.

The Public Notice spots have trickled out in recent weeks as the budget and health-care fights escalated in Congress. CNN reports that pro-Obama 501(c)(4) group Organizing for Action is set to launch what appears to be the first ad arising directly from the week-old shutdown, attacking tea party Republicans as “irresponsible,” “reckless,” and “destructive” for their role in closing down much of the government.

The Organizing for Action ad spotlights the squeeze on many programs serving vulnerable populations since federal funds stopped rolling out. Across Arkansas, the shutdown has cut off Department of Agriculture reimbursements to groups like Friendship Community Care that serve thousands of meals a month to home-bound seniors and the developmentally disabled, reports ArkansasOnline.

But there is relief, at least temporarily, for millions of low-income women and children who receive federal nutrition assistance: the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that the Agriculture Department gave states a green light Monday to maintain the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, through the end of October. Still, if there is no shutdown solution by November 1, “the tap will be turned off,” said Douglas Greenaway, head of the nonprofit advocacy group the National WIC Association.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio—which reopened Monday when the military branch recalled furloughed civilian employees—will shutter again today and remain closed until normal military appropriations resume, writes the Dayton Daily News.

In and around Washington, Jewish organizations are looking for ways to help the region’s many Jewish federal workers, writes Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Jewish community centers in the D.C. area are opening yoga classes and fitness activities to the furloughed, while Temple Rodef Shalom, a synagogue in Falls Church, Va., is recruiting temporarily jobless local Jews for its community service programs.