WASHINGTON — Wisconsin farmer Kat Becker joined a group of Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday to speak out against Republican-proposed changes to SNAP. The supplemental nutrition assistance program, formerly called food stamps, helps low-income people pay for groceries.
“SNAP impacts the farm economy,” Becker said.
Becker benefits when SNAP dollars are used at farmers markets.
“The impact on our farm is huge. The impact on wages for our employees is huge. And the impact on what we're able to spend in our communities is huge,” she said.
The House Agriculture Committee is tasked with finding $230 billion in cuts over the next decade to help finance President Donald Trump’s desired tax cuts.
One proposal Republicans on the committee are considering would expand SNAP’s work requirement to older adults up to age 65 and adults living with school-age children.
“Most adults between the ages of 18 and 54 can only receive food assistance for three months unless they can document that they're working 20 hours a week or prove that they qualify for an exemption, like having a disability,” said Katie Bergh, the senior policy analyst for food assistance at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). “Research has consistently shown that this requirement doesn't actually help people increase their earnings or improve their employment opportunities. It just cuts people off of food assistance. So, it's pretty harmful to people who are struggling to find steady, good paying jobs or face substantial barriers to employment.”
Bergh said if the Republican proposal passes, about 71,000 people in the state of Wisconsin would be at risk of losing their food benefits.
“Because when an adult in the household is cut off of SNAP for failing to comply with the work requirement, the entire household's benefits go down,” Bergh said.
CBPP's analysis found that, per the Congressional Budget Office's projection, broadening the work requirement for SNAP would "yield less than half of the $230 billion in cuts the House Agriculture Committee has been instructed to make."
"That means to meet its instructions, the committee would have to combine the harsher work requirements with other harmful policies that would take food assistance away from even more people," the CBPP report goes on to say.
Republicans are cutting the heart out of programs that help people in America meet their basic needs.Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minnesota, is the ranking member of the House Agriculture committee. At the press conference Wednesday, she said “Republicans are cutting the heart out of programs that help people in America meet their basic needs.”
“Let us be clear,” she continued. “It does not matter how my Republican colleagues try to spin this, cutting SNAP by $230 billion will result in children, seniors, veterans and disabled Americans going without food.”
Craig also said a cut of that magnitude would reduce income for farmers and threaten jobs across the entire food supply chain.
“When you spend $1 on SNAP, you're helping to pay the wages of the grocery store clerk who stocked the shelf, the trucker who delivered the food, the manufacturer who made the packaging and the farmer who grew it,” she said.
First-term Congressman Tony Wied, R-Green Bay, serves on the House Agriculture committee too.
It should not be controversial to expect able-bodied adults below retirement age to work or get an education for 20 hours a week.“Providing work requirements in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare is a commonsense approach to help lift people out of poverty and reduce long-term dependence on government assistance,” Wied told Spectrum News in a statement. “It should not be controversial to expect able-bodied adults below retirement age to work or get an education for 20 hours a week.”
If fewer people receive benefits, it could affect farmers and grocery stores in Becker’s corner of Wisconsin.
“For the small grocery store to be able to pay its bills, pay its employees and also donate money to our volunteer firefighters, like I do, it's dependent on that source of revenue,” she said.
The House agriculture committee is also considering pushing part of the cost of SNAP onto states, which the CBPP warns would also likely result in some Wisconsin recipients losing benefits.