Recent actions by House Republicans indicate a push for substantial cuts to SNAP, possibly over $230 billion. The Food and Nutrition Act defines permissible foods for SNAP recipients, but altering this definition would require either congressional approval or state-led initiatives. Key officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, support removing unhealthy food options from SNAP, raising questions about whether taxpayer dollars should fund less nutritious foods for those in need.
The one place that I would say that we need to really change policy is the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches," Kennedy said on Fox News last month. "There, the federal government in many cases is paying for it. And we shouldn't be subsidizing people to eat poison."
This is something that we've seen a handful of states request in the past, where they essentially are asking the Department of Agriculture to approve a request to restrict the foods that SNAP participants within their state can purchase in some form," she said.
When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?" Rollins echoed.
In order to narrow that definition, either Congress would need to change the law or a state would need to propose and get approval for a demonstration project to test that," Bergh told Axios.
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