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CHAIR STABENOW’S FARM BILL VISION PROTECTS AND STRENGTHENS SNAP;
CHAIR THOMPSON’S PUTS A HEALTHY DIET OUT OF REACH FOR MILLIONS  
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Ty Jones Cox
May 1, 2024
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
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_ Protect and strengthen the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), our nation’s most important and effective
anti-hunger program or cut future benefits for all SNAP participants
and erode the adequacy of SNAP benefits over time? _

, Wikipedia

 

Today, the chairs of the House and Senate Agriculture committees
released competing visions for a farm bill. The nutrition provisions
of the farm bill framework proposed by Senate Agriculture Committee
Chair Debbie Stabenow would protect and strengthen the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), our nation’s most important and
effective anti-hunger program. In stark contrast, the proposal from
House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson would put a
healthy diet out of reach in the future for millions of families with
low incomes by cutting future benefits for all SNAP participants and
eroding the adequacy of SNAP benefits over time.

Chair Stabenow’s proposal represents an important first step toward
a farm bill that protects the vital food assistance that SNAP provides
to millions of children, families, older adults, and people with
disabilities. It expands access to SNAP benefits for groups that have
historically been excluded from the program, ensures that benefits are
adequate to provide a nutritious diet, and improves customer service
for participants. Stabenow’s proposal would establish a path for
Puerto Rico to participate in SNAP, a critical step forward in
reducing Puerto Rico’s high rates of food insecurity and poverty and
addressing the long-standing inequities between U.S. Territories and
states. It would restore SNAP eligibility for people convicted of a
drug-related felony, ending a punitive policy that worsens food
insecurity and disproportionately impacts people of color, reflecting
and amplifying inequities in our criminal justice system. It would
also reduce barriers to SNAP participation for older adults, military
families, and some college students, and would enhance protections and
restore benefits for low-income families who are the victims of
electronic benefit theft, in addition to other improvements.

On the other hand, Chair Thompson’s proposal would prevent SNAP
benefits from keeping pace with the cost of a healthy, realistic diet
over time, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would
result in a roughly $30 billion cut to SNAP over the next decade. The
proposal would do this by freezing the cost of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Thrifty Food Plan (the basis for SNAP benefit levels)
outside of inflation adjustments, even if nutrition guidelines or
other factors change the cost of an adequate diet. The Thompson
proposal’s modest benefit improvements do not outweigh the harm to
the tens of millions of SNAP participants — including children,
older adults, and people with disabilities — who would receive less
food assistance in the future because of this policy.

The farm bill should be an opportunity for Congress to make progress
against food insecurity and hunger and tackle the glaring racial
inequities in food hardship.
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The farm bill should be an opportunity for Congress to make progress
against food insecurity and hunger and tackle the glaring racial
inequities in food hardship. Some 44.2 million people in 2022 lived in
households experiencing food insecurity, with rates particularly high
among Black, Latine, and American Indian and Alaska Native people.
Critically, Chair Stabenow’s proposal rejects the false premise that
improvements in SNAP must come at the expense of food assistance for
low-income families who count on SNAP to put food on the table. There
are proposals to improve SNAP that have bipartisan and bicameral
support. The Senate framework, which rejects harmful benefit cuts,
should be the basis for farm bill negotiations moving forward.

Statement of TY JONES COX
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President for Food Assistance

CBPP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) is a nonpartisan
research and policy institute that advances federal and state policies
to help build a nation where everyone — regardless of income, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ZIP code, immigration
status, or disability status — has the resources they need to thrive
and share in the nation’s prosperity.

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