The House GOP unveiled their bill to cut $290 Billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As expected (and as reported by Helena Bottemiller Evich in her must-read newsletter Food Fix), the bill would:
Shift SNAP benefit (and admin!) costs to states
Expand work requirements
Restrict Thrifty Food Plan revisions
Eliminate SNAP-Ed, the federal nutrition education program for SNAP participants
The bill would make states pay 5% of SNAP benefit costs, and 75% of administrative costs (up from 0% and 50%, respectively). This would break state budgets and lead many states to kick people off the program to save money.
Work requirements would extend through age 64, and no longer exempt parents of children older than 6. The bill would end work requirement waivers for areas with few jobs. So older adults would have to overcome age discrimination and job scarcity in order to get food assistance.
It would no longer count Internet costs towards utility costs in determining household net income for eligibility. And it would make it harder to use the heating standard utility allowance for families receiving a utility benefit through the Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP, which is itself in danger of elimination).
It is grim. More soon on actions we can all take to fight this catastrophic proposal.
Thanks for calling out these cruel, callous attempts to harm some of our most vulnerable citizens. Shameful.