Advocates urge Congress to stop the crisis
First Focus on Children and fellow advocates are urging Congress to address a brewing crisis that has already pushed more than 700,000 children from food aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since passage of H.R. 1 last year.
In a letter to leaders of the Senate agriculture committee today, First Focus on Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children’s Defense Fund, MomsRising, Save the Children, and Zero to Three urged lawmakers to extend to all states the two-year delay in cost shifts that they have already granted to nine states and the District of Columbia. Those cost shifts to states will go into effect later this year if Congress does not act.
“Children’s participation in SNAP isn’t dropping because the economy is stronger or because hunger has disappeared or because 700,000 kids had all been secretly defrauding the government,” First Focus on Children Senior Vice President of Economic Security Chad Bolt said. “They are losing access to nutritious food because states are struggling to administer the sweeping policy changes and new bureaucratic burdens imposed by H.R. 1 while also absorbing gigantic reductions in federal funding. Congress created this calamity and Congress has an obligation to fix it.”
New research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows that more than 700,000 children in just 12 states have lost SNAP benefits since H.R. 1 became law. Because the figures cover only the 12 states that report such data, CBPP estimates that the number of children no longer on SNAP nationally could be as high as 1 million and that the number will continue to climb.
“By the end of last year, 53% of families with infants and toddlers across the country reported mounting hardship paying for essentials, including food,” said Matthew Melmed, Executive Director, ZERO TO THREE. “We’ve heard parents say that they are cutting back on food to ensure their children are getting enough. We should be investing in nutrition assistance for struggling families, not making it harder for them to afford food.”
“Pediatricians know first-hand that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a critical tool in helping children thrive, which is why we are deeply concerned by the number of children who have already lost access to this vital program,” said American Academy of Pediatrics President Andrew D. Racine, MD, PhD, FAAP. “Far too many children in the United States are currently living in families facing food insecurity. Better nutrition leads to better health outcomes, and by staving off hunger, SNAP allows children to focus on learning in school and developing into healthy adults. Congress must act urgently to safeguard this program and delay the looming cost shift to states, which would have devastating consequences for the millions of children who rely on SNAP.”