As anxiety builds over which new policies the presidential administration will, won’t or may implement, Utahns Against Hunger is deeply concerned with what is happening to food access.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut funding for federal food programs by at least $1 billion. These programs primarily serve low-income families through food pantries, school children and seniors. In addition, these programs allow local farmers to have a steady income from their crops and livestock. What will be the economic impact of these cuts? Nothing good.
While these cuts are awful, Congress’s proposal for reducing the USDA budget is even more alarming. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees have been directed to cut $230 billion from the USDA budget over 10 years. The Reconciliation process has been set in motion by Congress, and both the House and the Senate have agreed to the proposed cuts. Congress can’t achieve those levels of budget cuts without making fewer people eligible or cutting benefits. And this is happening despite the fact that about 12% of Utah households experience food insecurity; that’s roughly 130,000 households who don’t get enough to eat. These households rely on community food pantries and federal nutrition programs to make ends meet. If the USDA budget cut is approved, the situation for these households and thousands of others will get much worse.
The level of changes needed to achieve $230 billion in cuts could fundamentally change federal nutrition programs, and not for the better. Waste, fraud and abuse are often cited as the rationale for such drastic cuts. However, we believe the biggest threat of fraud to SNAP recipients is the current practice of skimming, which entails extracting SNAP EBT card data and stealing the benefits. Congress should be investing in modernizing the card technology that will keep SNAP benefits secure, instead of making it more difficult for low-income Americans to qualify for SNAP.
Jumping into the fray are our own Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Mike Kennedy. Lee has introduced the Healthy SNAP Act; this legislation expands the existing work requirements and would require a 5% cost share to start and increase over time to fifty percent. For Utah, 5% would be more than $19 million to maintain current caseloads. Kennedy has introduced the Let’s Get to Work Act, which also expands work requirements for SNAP recipients and includes recipients of federal housing assistance. Pointing to work requirements ignores the fact that people on SNAP are already working. The value of a stable job is not news to working people going through variable hours, low wages and sudden layoffs as they try to provide for their families.
UAH opposes these efforts, not only because work requirements haven’t demonstrated that they work, but because we, as a nation, should be dedicated to ensuring that all of our communities have access to food, which is a human right.
Utahns Against Hunger is calling on Utah’s federal delegation to enter into this process with caution and with their most vulnerable constituents in mind. While the reconciliation process has been touted to reduce our deficit and curb government spending, we also know that these cuts are being made to extend and make permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. And while there is a lot of debate about who benefits most from these tax cuts, we also know that achieving these savings will mean that low-income Utahns who need programs like SNAP, Medicaid and housing assistance will be much worse off. These policies will increase hunger and food insecurity in Utah, subsequently reducing Utah’s economic stability and increasing rates of chronic diseases such as depression, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
Our nation’s budget is a moral document about what we care about, and we are asking our elected representatives to care more about their vulnerable constituents and ask themselves: Who is going hungry tonight?
(Gina Cornia) Gina Cornia is the director of Utahns Against Hunger.
Gina Cornia is the director of Utahns Against Hunger. UAH works state-wide to increase access to food through advocacy, outreach and education.
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