Yesterday, House Agriculture Committee Democrats hosted a briefing on the dangers of cutting the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by imposing benefit costs on state governments. Since SNAP was created in its current form 50 years ago, the federal government has paid the full cost of benefits and split administrative costs 50-50 with states.

State and county program administrators from Connecticut, New York, Oregon and Ohio participated in the briefing to educate House Democrats about how forcing state and local governments to pay for federal food assistance would result in taking food away from low-income households. 

“If we want to make SNAP more efficient, we should pass a bipartisan farm bill, not cut benefits from families, veterans and seniors,” said Ranking Member Angie Craig (MN-02), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. “This proposal would not generate any cost savings – it would merely pass the buck from the federal government to the states and take food away from innocent people in the process.”

Background

• There is no existing infrastructure for states to pay for SNAP benefits.
  
• Even a modest cost-share policy would leave individual state governments on the hook for millions of dollars, straining state budgets, or force states to pick and choose who take food away from.
  • See state-by-state numbers here.
    
• Mandating states begin to pay for benefits would increase inequality among the states and their residents, with wealthier states being more able to serve its residents while leaving states with higher poverty rates and lower incomes at a disadvantage.
  
• This policy would force states to cut SNAP benefits, slash other critical programs, or impose massive tax hikes at a time when food prices are already high and other critical food assistance for farm-to-school food programs and food banks are being haphazardly cut by the Administration.