The Administration’s Attack on SNAP Threatens to Devastate Families Nationwide

By Stan Dorn, Director, Health Policy Program

As if a government shutdown weren’t enough, the administration is now choosing to make it even harder for struggling families to afford food by halting the nation’s most important anti-hunger program.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps 42 million people, including 10 million Latinos, put food on the table each month. Four out of every five SNAP families include children, older adults or people with disabilities, and the vast majority are working families struggling to afford groceries. More than a million veterans rely on SNAP to help pay for groceries each month.

SNAP also strengthens the economy, helping small businesses keep their doors open and preventing large companies from laying off workers. During economic downturns, each month of SNAP spending generates $12 billion in economic activity, preserves more than 100,000 jobs and generates over $200 million in farm revenue.

No previous administration has ever let SNAP lapse during a government-shutdown. Legal experts believe SNAP must continue, despite the current shutdown — a position the U.S. Department of Agriculture publicly shared until just a few days ago.

This choice to let SNAP close its doors for the first time in the history of government shutdowns unfortunately comes as no surprise. Last summer, the budget law backed by Republican majorities in the House and Senate and signed by the President slashed SNAP by nearly $200 billion, making the largest cuts to SNAP since the program’s creation in the 1930s. As a result, 20 million families will receive less help paying for groceries. Five million of those families will suffer especially deep cuts averaging $1,700 a year — and two-thirds of those cuts will directly affect children. Even if, as we hope, the administration rethinks its position and decides to keep SNAP open during the current shutdown — or if litigation forces a change in administration policy — the federal budget law enacted this year under the Trump administration will still condemn millions of vulnerable Americans to needless poverty and hunger.

Americans of all backgrounds will suffer, but the Latino community will experience particularly deep harm. More than one in five Latino families already does not have enough food to eat — twice the rate of non-Hispanic white families. And almost a third of Latino adults have gone into debt to pay for groceries — more than any other racial or ethnic group.

SNAP is about more than food— it’s about opportunity, health and dignity. To protect families’ well-being and help them make ends meet, the administration must use its legal authority to keep SNAP running, however long the government shutdown lasts. No child, older adult or working parent should be forced to go hungry when our country has the resources to ensure that every family can live in dignity and raise children who grow up healthy and strong.