SNAP Back on September 13 National Call-In Day

Congress is back in session after the month-long August recess. Lawmakers are working against the clock: both the current Farm Bill and our federal fiscal year expire at the end of this month.

At stake in the Farm Bill is the fate of over 2 million Americans who need SNAP to put food on their tables. The House Farm Bill imposes harsh and unworkable changes to SNAP (food stamps) that would primarily hurt under-employed and low wage working parents with children. The Senate bill leaves the SNAP program pretty much intact, reaffirming that SNAP is one of our most effective anti-poverty programs and helps fuel our economy by supporting workers and generating jobs in our food system.

As Congressional leadership continues to negotiate a conference agreement between the House and Senate bills, it is critical to keep the pressure on all Congressional members to reject the extremely partisan House bill’s SNAP provisions. A recent study from the nonpartisan Mathematica Policy Institute affirms that the House bill will take food from 2 million individuals with a proposed change to Categorical Eligibility. Categorical Eligibility helps more eligible households access SNAP–these are households with modest earnings but have high basic costs of living. This cut alone will completely eliminate eligibility for 1 in 11 households currently on SNAP; of these households, 34% include seniors, 23% include children, and 11% include people with disabilities.

Now more than ever we need to keep the pressure on Congress to do the right thing: stand up against hunger and pass a Farm Bill that protects SNAP.

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