Budget Impasse Threatens Funds for the Elderly : Aid: Programs, especially those that provide meals, may suffer cutbacks if the federal stalemate isn’t resolved this week, officials say.

Federal officials in Washington and Sacramento are warning of possible serious cutbacks in California programs for the elderly--primarily food programs--if the federal budget impasse is not resolved by the end of this week.

“It now appears that we’ve reached a point of no return [in the budget talks], and we will suffer severe cutbacks in our programs beginning next week,” Fernando M. Torres-Gil, assistant secretary for aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an interview Wednesday.

“Our funds ran out Dec. 15, and no more federal money is going out to our state offices and our area offices on aging,” Torres-Gil said. “We are making due for the time being because the states are covering us with an interim cash flow.”

Torres-Gil said that all programs for the elderly were operating normally--so far.

“But we will have very serious problems--and California in particular will feel the pinch. If the budget impasse continues, we expect shutdowns of various programs to be announced by the end of the week. Within a month we will have serious, serious problems,” Torres-Gil said.

In a more benign example of how the impasse has affected the operation of the federal government, Torres-Gil answered his own telephone Wednesday--on the second ring.

The California Department of Aging funds a variety of programs for the elderly, including ombudsmen, transportation, legal assistance, in-home and personal medical care, home repairs and pension counseling.

But nutrition programs are the department’s best-known and most critical service.

“If we were to go to the end of the year with still no break in the impasse or no continuing resolution, some of the food suppliers that we contract with would not have the cash flow to continue their service,” said Dixon Arnett, director of the state Department of Aging in Sacramento. “As important as our other services are, they are not as crucial or as timely as a meal. When a person we serve is hungry, they’re hungry.”

The California Department of Aging provides more than 2 million meals every year, and Los Angeles County accounts for one-third of them, Arnett said.

Arnett also warned that an ombudsman program for the elderly was in jeopardy because of the budget gridlock.

The program relies on a largely volunteer network of workers and “would be essentially shut down,” Arnett said, if new funds are not approved by the end of the week.