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PUBLIC BENEFITS JUSTICE UPDATE
DECEMBER 2025
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Fading to Invisible: Why Ending the USDA Food Security Report Makes Hunger in America Invisible
In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it would end the long-standing Household Food Security Report. This decision will make hunger in America harder to measure and easier to ignore, especially in the wake of historic SNAP cuts. For nearly 30 years, the report has been the nation’s most reliable tool for tracking who is going hungry. Ending it continues a long pattern of data suppression that obscures inequities affecting Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and rural communities, as well as those with low incomes. The brief urges immediate reinstatement to ensure transparency, accountability, and an accurate understanding of hunger in the U.S.
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Impact of Medicaid Cuts in H.R. 1 on Non-expansion States
The effect of H.R. 1 on the 10 non-expansion states has not received the same attention as the major eligibility changes in expansion states (work requirements and more frequent redeterminations), but Medicaid programs in non-expansion states will also be harmed by the bill. Eligibility and financing changes will force non-expansion states to make difficult decisions and likely lead to reduced services, lower provider reimbursement rates, and hospital closures.
Read More [[link removed]]
Despite Misleading Reporting, Guaranteed Income Programs Help Families
Guaranteed income programs are a critical tool for providing people with enough cash to not only meet their basic needs, but to thrive. But recent reporting in The New York Times about the Baby’s First Years study has questioned the success of such programs. This study represents just one of many and should not be used as a reason to ignore the years of comprehensive research and participant testimonials demonstrating the positive outcomes of guaranteed income.
Read More [[link removed]]
Introducing Our 2025 Defending Public Benefits Cohort.
In June, we welcomed our second Community Partnership Group [[link removed]] cohort—three powerful advocates from across the country who are using their lived expertise to shape stronger, more human-centered public benefits systems. This year’s members are already advancing meaningful projects rooted in community need, storytelling, and policy change.
Christina Hasaan — Philadelphia, PA
Christina is focused on improving access to SSI and SSDI for individuals with disabilities. Through interviews with people navigating the disability benefits process, she will identify barriers and burdens in access. Her project will culminate in a Philadelphia-based listening session with CBOs and policymakers and a policy brief outlining state and federal recommendations.
Ashley Blair — Memphis, TN
Ashley’s project, “VOICE: Victory Over Injustices Creates Equality,” explores food justice and access to WIC and SNAP. Through interviews and lived experience, she will publish a series of blogs on nutrition equity, including improving WIC access for fathers, expanding vegan food options, and what food justice means in practice. Her work will include policy recommendations and publications.
Read Ashley’s powerful reflection [[link removed]] on WIC, food justice, and nutrition equity through the lens of lived experience and motherhood:
READ MORE [[link removed]]
Tania Whitfield — Lexington, Kentucky
Tania will lead narrative work aimed at shifting the language used to describe people receiving public benefits. Through her newly launched Tania Daddy’s Girl Podcast, she will challenge misconceptions and elevate community stories. Tania also plans to host a Kentucky town hall that will bring together residents, advocates, and policymakers to discuss strengthening SNAP access and building narrative power statewide.
Listen to Episode 1 of Tania Daddy’s Girl Podcast [[link removed]] , where Tania shares her advocacy roots and the profound influence her father had on her voice, purpose, and commitment to community.
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In the News
NOVEMBER 21, 2025 | AARP
New SNAP Work Rules Threaten to Snarl Older Adults in Red Tape [[link removed]]This article highlights how recent federal changes to SNAP’s work requirements are placing significant burdens on both state agencies and older adults who rely on food assistance. States are scrambling to update systems, verify exemptions, and implement complex new rules that risk delaying or disrupting access to food for people ages 50–54. The article underscores how these administrative barriers disproportionately harm older adults, especially those with health limitations or unstable work hours. Parker Gilkesson Davis is quoted saying, “Many older adults may also request in-person appointments to apply for benefits like SNAP, ‘because the application is extremely difficult.’”
NOVEMBER 7 | INSIDE MORTGAGE FINANCE
Loss of SNAP Benefits Could Lead to ABS Delinquencies [[link removed]]This article explains that delayed or reduced SNAP payments could increase financial strain for borrowers with low wages. Teon Hayes is cited in the article, noting that recipients are already stretching about $6 per person per day, and any benefit reductions push families toward credit cards or predatory loans that deepen long-term financial harm. Hayes also cautions that every missed bill or added fee compounds generational financial instability, reinforcing the very cycles of poverty that SNAP is intended to disrupt.
National, State, and Local Spotlights
National Spotlights
Government Shutdown [#]
On The 43-day government shutdown ended on November 12, impacting people’s access to nutrition support and health care in several ways. Millions of SNAP recipients spent the first weeks of November waiting to receive their assistance, while the Trump Administration fought a series of legal battles to pause funding the program during the shutdown. Since the shutdown has ended, SNAP payments have yet to resume in all 50 states. Additionally, Congress failed to extend the enhanced premium tax credits in the federal spending package that passed. The loss of enhanced premium tax credits means that people purchasing their health insurance on the Marketplace will see their monthly premium increase by an average of 114 percent.
Public Charge [#]
The Trump Administration recently proposed a change to the “public charge” test. Public charge impacts people applying for a green card, especially if the applicant is sponsored by a family member. In those cases, immigration officials look at whether the person will mostly depend on the government for support in the future. Many immigrants are exempt from public charge by laws that cannot be changed by regulations. The administration’s proposed rule would expand the type of programs that could be considered in a public charge test, among other harmful changes. These changes are likely to have a large chilling effect on immigrants’ willingness to access critical benefits, for themselves and their families. Comments on the proposed rule are open until December 19, and advocates are encouraging people to submit substantive comments for a future legal case. You can find the Protecting Immigrant Families’ toolkit on public charge here. [[link removed]]
Local Spotlight
Washington, D.C. Implements a Local Child Tax Credit [#]D.C. is the first city to enact a local Child Tax Credit, beginning in tax year 2026 (families can start claiming the credit in 2027). The credit will be worth up to $1,000 per child under age 18 and will be available to families with lower earnings. The credit is projected to reduce child poverty by 25 percent [[link removed]] in tandem with the federal credit. The credit is funded [[link removed]] through decoupling the city tax code from the federal tax code, abstaining from tax changes passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
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Key Blog Posts and Publications
NOVEMBER 21 | TEON HAYES
SNAP And Medicaid Are Under Attack—But Black Communities Are Building Their Own Safety Nets [[link removed]]In this op-ed, Teon highlights how unprecedented cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid—and growing uncertainty around public benefits—are pushing Black and Brown communities to once again rely on the collective care traditions that have sustained them for generations. Now more than ever, community-led solutions must be uplifted, replicated, and resourced by philanthropy and allies, because these homegrown systems of care are already working and deserve long-term investment.
DECEMBER 3 | JESSE FAIRBANKS, KAELIN RAPPORT, ISHA WEERASINGHE
Encampments Criminalize the Unhoused [[link removed]]This fall, Utah officials announced plans to build an encampment near Salt Lake City that would displace 1,300 individuals experiencing homelessness and force them to receive mental health treatment. This camp is a harbinger of the federal government’s plans to address the dual mental health and housing insecurity crises plaguing the United States with carceral expansion. Millions of dollars are going toward this camp that will deepen cycles of poverty and poor health while federal funding for short- and long-term housing is threatened. We must stop other states from implementing similar plans and face the stigma surrounding homelessness and mental health with care rather than coercion. The op-ed has been picked up by nine regional news outlets.
What We're Reading
THE CENTURY FOUNDATION
The Care Imperative: Why Investing In Care Grows America’s Economy [[link removed]]
CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES
States Should Use TANF to Help Families Meet Their Basic Needs and Thrive, Not to Balance Budgets [[link removed]] [[link removed]]
THE NEW YORK TIMES
In Utah, Trump’s Vision for Homelessness Begins to Take Shape [[link removed]] .

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