Bill closely resembles House proposal to slash food assistance for families with children and older adults while shifting billions in costs to states
The Greater Chicago Food Depository strongly opposes proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) brought forth by the Senate Agriculture Committee on June 11. Cutting $211 billion from our nation’s most vital anti-hunger program over the next decade will create unprecedented food insecurity while overwhelming charitable food banks and pantries nationwide.
The Senate proposal to cut SNAP repeats the same disastrous ideas in the budget reconciliation bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22. It aims to cut SNAP through ineffective work requirements on parents with children as young as 10, older adults and other people with significant barriers to consistent employment. Expanding existing work requirements for these groups will threaten SNAP benefits for hundreds of thousands of individuals across Illinois.
Like the House bill, the Senate proposal also requires states to take on a significant share of SNAP expenses – a cost burden that most states, including Illinois, are unable to shoulder. Here in Illinois, this could amount to an estimated half a billion dollars annually. Most states will have to severely reduce benefits and/or restrict eligibility further. And families left out in the cold will have no choice but to rely on already overwhelmed food pantries for survival.
The bill also aims to cut SNAP by limiting re-evaluation of benefit levels to every five years and require updates to be cost-neutral. This would prevent benefits from increasing alongside actual food costs making the benefits less adequate for all SNAP households over time.
These measures will leave hundreds of thousands of our most vulnerable neighbors in Illinois without the food support they need at a time of elevated grocery prices and housing costs.
Communities will also suffer. Members of Congress fail to recognize that SNAP is a powerful economic engine. Every SNAP dollar spent creates $1.50 in economic activity for local retailers. In Cook County alone, SNAP generates approximately $280 million a month in economic activity.
The fight is not over. The proposed cuts still must achieve a majority vote in the full Senate before going back to the House as part of a budget reconciliation package.
We must raise our voices and oppose any attempts to take away basic food assistance from our neighbors to go ahead. We encourage everyone to participate in our latest action alert to contact your senators and urge them to vote NO on any bill that cuts SNAP and other vital safety net programs.
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