“We urge the Senate to continue refining this bill and reject harmful changes to SNAP that would do more harm than good,” said Kelemen.
Contact: Ryan Flaherty, rflaherty@strength.org
WASHINGTON, DC — Wednesday evening, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee leadership introduced its portion of the proposed budget reconciliation bill which includes more than $200 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Both chambers of Congress must agree on an identical budget bill before it goes to the President's desk. The following is a statement from George Kelemen, Senior Vice President for Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign:
“While we remain concerned about the effect on childhood food security, we are thankful that the Senate Agriculture Committee's proposal significantly pares back the most extreme cuts to SNAP passed by the House. It’s a meaningful step in the right direction, but this new proposal still includes provisions that would make it drastically more difficult for families to access nutritious food and make it harder for states to operate the program.
“With food prices continuing to climb and families feeling the strain, SNAP remains one of our most powerful tools to fight hunger and keep kids nourished and healthy. We should be strengthening SNAP, not limiting its reach. This bill would still unnecessarily hurt working families and states trying to administer SNAP while needlessly punishing retailers and farmers across the country, pushing fragile local economies to their limits.
“These cuts to SNAP stand in direct opposition to what Americans want, 86% of whom say they would be concerned if their Members of Congress supported cuts to the program, according to a recent national survey conducted on behalf of Share Our Strength.
“Pairing these changes with the proposed Medicaid cuts would further compound the challenges families face, making it not just harder to put food on the table, but also to access healthcare. All of these changes will create additional ripple effects on a wide swath of programs, including school meals and Summer EBT that will make our kids hungrier and less healthy.
“We look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Boozman and bipartisan leaders to protect and strengthen SNAP for kids because we know our country can ensure that no child goes hungry. Instead of cutting this vital program, we should be making smart investments and improvements to SNAP to make it more effective, efficient and ensure program integrity.
“We urge the Senate to continue refining this bill and reject harmful changes to SNAP that would do more harm than good.”
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.