Hunger Doesn’t Know a Time Limit: Submit a Comment Opposing USDA Rule

On Friday, USDA published a proposed rule change that threatens to take food off the tables of 755,000 under-employed and unemployed individuals. It’s estimated that over the next ten years, this change would cut SNAP benefits by $15 billion – that’s three times the annual operating budget of every charitable food pantry in our country. Hunger would grow in our communities as it’s unsustainable for food banks to try to keep up with making up for the loss of missed meals.

Current law places a three-month time limit on SNAP when working-aged adults cannot document that they are working 20 hours per week. States can waive this time limit in areas of high unemployment, but the proposed rule will make it harder for states to ask for this waiver. This means that the time limit will apply even in places where jobs are not available year-round. This time limit is harsh because it takes food from people who face significant barriers to finding employment or who are working but they’re employers don’t give them enough hours to meet the required average of 80 hours per month.

The proposed rule change flies in the face of the strongly bipartisan Farm Bill that was signed into law in December. That Farm Bill rejected harsh and harmful proposals that had the same goal as this proposed rule. This is why USDA needs to hear from you, letting them know in public comment that the proposed change will worsen hunger and poverty.

Update from Olympia

It’s the beginning of the fourth week of the legislative session. Our top priority-establishing a state fruit and vegetable incentive program to help make produce more affordable for low-income Washingtonians-had a hearing in the House last week and the Senate version of this bill will be heard on Tuesday afternoon.

This week, there will also be hearings on a bill to increase seated lunch time so that all students have time to actually eat their school lunch. Two new bills related to student hunger were introduced this week: Rep. Morgan introduced a bill that would eliminate the co-pay for a reduced-price school lunch to help more struggling students eat a nutritious meal at school, and Rep. Entenman introduced a bill aimed at tackling college hunger by expanding eligibility for SNAP for low-income students.

From our support agenda, we heard heartbreaking testimony in support of Rep. Senn’s and Sen. Nguyen’s TANF reform bills, stories of families facing significant barriers of homelessness and domestic violence who could not access the TANF assistance intended to help them with child care, workforce training, and cash assistance to pay the rent or other basic necessities. This week, there will be hearings on bills to prevent homelessness with reforms to the evictions process and on the Working Families Tax Credit which refunds a portion of sales taxes paid by low-income workers so that they can buy food, pay the rent, and other necessities.

We hope you’ll join us in Olympia for Hunger Action Day, Feb. 11, for the opportunity to meet with your lawmakers in support of these anti-hunger and anti-poverty priorities! And if you can’t join us in person, join us virtually on Feb. 11 by participating in the  Hunger Action Call-In Day!

WHAT YOU CAN DO