Hundreds of thousands of Bay State children and seniors could go hungry if the congressional Republicans carry through with their plan to cut funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the Healey administration is warning.
Lower chamber lawmakers are attempting to cover the cost of implementing President Donald Trump’s signature first-term 2017 tax cuts by slashing several government programs, and the “big beautiful bill” touted by the U.S. President could end up costing the Bay State nearly $710 million in food assistance funding annually, Gov. Maura Healey warned Thursday. It’s a cost no state is prepared to suddenly bear, she said.
“This budget proposal from Congressional Republicans will force Massachusetts families to go hungry and take away business from local retailers and farmers,” the governor said in a statement.
In a letter sent to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and the House Committee on Agriculture urging them to reverse course, Healey explained that more than one million Massachusetts residents rely on SNAP, “one third of whom are elderly, one quarter of them are children, and a quarter of those who receive SNAP in our state have a disability.”
The benefit provided to those who need it, Healey wrote, is “modest,” averaging about $10.70 per day per household. People receiving SNAP benefits don’t hoard the money either, which is good for those who aren’t receiving food assistance, according to the governor.
“Every dollar in SNAP benefits generates up to $1.50 in local economic activity, supporting thousands of Massachusetts jobs across many different industries, including farmers, grocers, manufacturers, delivery drivers, and other positions throughout the food supply chain,” she wrote.
The proposed cuts, according to Lt. Gov. Kimberly Driscoll, “pulls the rug out from under states who have worked in good faith partnership with the federal government for decades.”
“This proposal will force kids to go hungry and hurt our economy,” she said.
On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee advanced legislation which would see significant changes both in how SNAP is funded and what requirements are placed on prospective recipients. The legislation, which heads next to the House Budget Committee, would result in $300 billion in cuts to the program over the next decade.
The bill would also require states to fund part of their SNAP programs depending on their “payment error rate.” States with the lowest error rate would pay 5% of SNAP costs, while those with higher payment errors would have to put up 25% of costs. It also aims to prevent future increases to the SNAP benefit, and ups the work requirement age cap from 54 to 64.