Children could see more immigration actions, fewer SNAP benefits
In the last 24 hours, Congress has advanced legislation that unnecessarily threatens the safety and well-being of millions of the nation’s children.
The Farm Bill passed by the House this morning dramatically undermines the country’s main hunger alleviation program and the 16 million children who rely on it. The 224-200 Farm Bill vote comes on the heels of lawmakers’ vote last night to adopt a Senate-approved budget plan that paves the way to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration enforcement agencies without requiring any guardrails to protect children or their families who have been terrorized over the last year.
“These lawmakers will allow the Department of Homeland Security to continue operating without any congressional oversight, without any accountability at all,” First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley said. “No guardrails to keep immigration officials from staking out schools, no safety assurances for playgrounds and doctors’ offices, no prohibition on whisking away pregnant and nursing parents, no end to keeping children, even babies, in detention. How else could we spend that money? Maybe on helping children get medical care. Or a safe and stable home. Or a daily meal. It’s been a long time since children in this country faced so much hardship as their parents struggle to afford gas and groceries and even longer since they’ve been asked to do it while paying for a war.”
The additional funds for DHS, particularly for ICE and CBP, included in the budget resolutions have major implications for children’s health and well-being. Over the past year, these agencies’ sweeping immigration enforcement actions have directly and profoundly impacted children, laying bare the urgent need for safeguards to protect children from further trauma and harm at the hands of ICE and CBP.
Today’s vote on the Farm Bill cements the $187 billion in funding cuts to SNAP through H.R. 1 and will ignite a scramble at the state-level to maintain the program. Roughly 1-in-5 children in the United States already struggle with food insecurity. Without more time to prepare for the additional costs they’re about to accrue, states will likely be forced to reduce SNAP benefits, cut enrollment, or drop out of SNAP altogether – resulting in a deeper hunger crisis.
“SNAP participation has plummeted by more than 3 million people in the last year, not because groceries have become more affordable or because parents are suddenly better off – it’s because of the policy changes enacted under H.R. 1,” said Chad Bolt, First Focus Campaign for Children Senior Vice President for Economic Security. “As states fully implement those changes, the problem will only get worse. By passing a Farm Bill today that locks in those devastating cuts and ignores the imminent threat to SNAP that the Democratic and Republican governors of all 50 states have asked Congress to address, the House has ensured that the 16 million children and their families that rely on SNAP could lose the help they need to put food on the table.”