Local advocates are decrying major potential cuts to the nation’s food assistance safety net, reductions that are part of the Trump administration-backed tax bill making its way through the U.S. Senate.
The White House-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill” would radically overhaul the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the nation’s major food-aid program, commonly called SNAP, or food stamps.
“People will go hungry because of [this bill],” said Ann Sanders, director of public benefits policy and programs for anti-hunger group Just Harvest, speaking at a lunchtime demonstration Monday afternoon outside of the offices of Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick in downtown Pittsburgh.
Close to 2 million Pennsylvanians are enrolled in SNAP; more than 164,000 people participate in the program in Allegheny County.
The White House has said the measure “protects and strengthens SNAP,” which the administration says has “become so bloated that it is leaving fewer resources for those who truly need help.
“We are committed to preserving SNAP for the truly needy,” the statement asserts.
The legislation would restructure SNAP so that, for the first time in its history, some of the cost of its benefits would be shifted to states. (States and the federal governments split the program’s administrative costs, but the benefits themselves have previously been covered by the federal government.)
Under the bill, Pennsylvania would need to contribute roughly $800 million annually in state funds to maintain its current level of food aid, said Colleen Young, director of government affairs for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, at a Monday press conference said Pennsylvania “can’t backfill” federal cuts.
“I hope that the House and Senate will realize ramming this through is harmful, and by the way, very unpopular, and instead try and work in a bipartisan manner to give tax relief to people who need it and protect people’s access to healthcare and food assistance,” Shapiro told reporters.
Local charity groups couldn’t fill the gap either, said Young.
“Food pantries cannot make up the difference to large-scale cuts in SNAP,” she said. “For every one meal that we provide, SNAP provides nine, and it would just not be possible for us to keep up with significant increases in demand if SNAP were to be cut at this level that we’re talking about right now.”
A similar, House-passed version of the bill would make billions in cuts by shifting some costs to states, barring legal immigrants from getting benefits, and adding additional reporting requirements for SNAP recipients.
The Trump administration has said such work-reporting requirements are needed; but critics say too much additional paperwork will cause eligible people to lose benefits they are legally entitled to.
The legislation “will increase the number of people who are going without food, either by reducing their benefit amount or by making them ineligible for benefits or getting people caught up in more red tape,” Just Harvest’s Sanders said. “It does not help with making the program simpler or easier to administer. It adds on layers of complication.”
But a House version of the bill passed that chamber in May, and with 53 Republican Senators, the party holds a narrow majority in the upper chamber as well. Republican Senators, including Pennsylvania’s McCormick, voted to advance the bill this past weekend, setting up for a final vote this week.
McCormick has generally supported the bill’s provisions, and in a town-hall-style phone call with constituents last week, said the food-aid program has grown too much and “people that the program was never intended for are receiving benefits from the program.”
In response to a question from a caller who identified herself as 80 years old and said she relied on SNAP benefits, McCormick said “you obviously are someone who the program is designed for.” But he added “there’s certainly a lot of evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse in those programs.”
Chris Potter, Tom Riese, and Julia Maruca contributed reporting.
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