The “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, includes about $267 billion in spending cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program over a 10-year period.
This legislation severely cuts and alters implementation of SNAP and other programs that meet people’s basic needs, including Medicaid, The Alliance to End Hunger said in a news release.
SNAP is the largest federal nutrition program in the U.S., serving 42 million individuals in need of food assistance. The legislation, if passed in the Senate, would mark the largest cut to SNAP in the program’s history, according to The Alliance to End Hunger. The coalition said it is “deeply opposed to the legislation” and urges the Senate to reject the bill.
Among the provisions, the bill shifts SNAP benefit food costs and a larger portion of administrative costs to the states. The Alliance to End Hunger says this transfer would result in benefit cuts, fewer SNAP participants, and/or waiting lists.
“SNAP cuts passed in the House of Representatives are simply unconscionable,” The Alliance to End Hunger President Eric Mitchell said in the release. “These cuts would strip vital nutrition assistance from families who need it most, making our nation sicker, hungrier and more vulnerable in an already uncertain economy. The Senate must reject this harmful legislation and protect access to food and healthcare for our most vulnerable neighbors.”
The Alliance to End Hunger says the legislation also contains provisions that would negatively impact individuals and families in need, including restrictions on updates to the Thrifty Food Plan — the basis for benefit amounts — which would not allow adjustments to food benefits at a time when many families are experiencing rising grocery bills. These changes also would not allow benefit levels to keep up with the rising cost of food and the need to improve nutrition, the release said.
The coalition says proposed changes in work requirements will likely decrease the number of people who participate in SNAP, especially for older workers aged 54-65 without children, and parents with children as young as age 7 who are not yet old enough to stay at home alone.
With the legislation now moving to the Senate, The Alliance to End Hunger is urging senators to “reject devastating cuts to SNAP.”
The Alliance to End Hunger is a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of corporations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, universities, foundations, international organizations and individuals.
