“This remains an unprecedented cut to SNAP – meaning less food on the table for kids,” said Kelemen.
Contact: Ryan Flaherty, rflaherty@strength.org
WASHINGTON, DC — The Senate is now debating and considering amendments on a budget bill which currently includes nearly $200 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Both chambers of Congress still need to 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 continue to see incremental improvements for families in this bill, this remains an unprecedented cut to SNAP – meaning less food on the table for kids.
“This budget bill still threatens to take away or reduce benefits from families by imposing additional red tape and onerous time limits on hardworking parents. Veterans and seniors trying to make ends meet may also lose access to vital nutrition due to these extra requirements.
“The newly created and unfunded mandate for states also included in this bill threatens the future of SNAP by fundamentally changing the program's structure. It will create an impossible financial burden that will inevitably backfire, making it harder for state agencies to make meaningful investments in program integrity and benefit protection for families.
“With rising food costs, SNAP remains a powerful tool to fight hunger through its nutritious grocery benefits that keep kids healthy and ensure families can stretch their budgets each month. This bill, however, does nothing to lower costs for those families and won’t help the nearly 14 million of our nation’s kids facing hunger but will create new financial burdens for states, farmers and businesses.
“As the Senate considers amendments on the floor before sending this bill back to the House, there is still time to make smart investments that will actually improve program integrity, ensure kids are fed and support families so they can contribute to stronger communities for all Americans.”
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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.